Creating a New Regional Sandbox for B2: The Keep on the Borderlands

Over on Bluesky, I recently finished up my readthrough of Dungeon Module B2: The Keep on the Borderlands - actually, by the time this post sees the light of day it will have been over a month ago since I finished it!

One thing that struck me about B2 is the regional map, which looks like this:

Not included in the image above is the scale of the map, which is 100 yards per square. Nothing wrong with that, except:

Huh. It takes an hour to walk 300 yards. That doesn't sound right. A commenter on my thread pointed out that this is probably an error:

That certainly makes more sense, but I actually kind of like the larger scale produced by the error. If we just count squares and determine how long it takes to get from place to place using the originally printed guidelines we get the following travel times (assuming 8-hour travel days):

• ~1 hour and 40 minutes from the fork in the road to the Keep
• ~16 hours (2 days' travel) from the Keep to Area 1, the Mound of the Lizard Men
• ~32 hours (4 days) from the Keep to Area 2, the Spiders' Lair
• ~10 hours (1.25 days) from the Keep to Area 3, the Raider Camp
• ~6.5 hours (.8 days days) from the Keep to Area 4, the Mad Hermit's lair
• ~16 hours (2 days) from the Keep to the Caves of the Unknown
• ~16 hours (2 days) from the Keep to the Caves of Chaos

Maybe it was intended for the player characters to be able to walk from the Keep to the Caves of Chaos in 2 hours and 40 minutes, but I like my players to have to work just a little bit more to get to their destination. It gives them a chance at having random encounters which produce interesting and unexpected results and complications, and I want that to happen. I like the larger scale.

I don't however, like the map. I don't like counting squares. So I made a new map:

This map more or less yields the same travel times as those above, and I'll show my work.

The scale is 6 miles per hex. Plains hexes take 1 hour to enter and 2 hours to cross (same with roads if the player characters are on one, but in this case it doesn't matter because the only roads go through plains hexes). Forest hexes take 2 hours to enter and 4 hours to cross. Heavy forest hexes take 4 hours to enter and 8 hours to cross. Forested hill hexes take 3 hours to enter and 6 hours to cross. Forested mountain hexes take 4 hours to enter and 8 hours to cross. Fen hexes and wetland forest hexes take 8 hours to enter and 16 hours to cross. Rivers take 1 hour to cross.

So:

• From the crossroads to the Keep is 2 hours
• From the Keep to the Mound of the Lizard Men is 16 hours (6 hours on the road, 1 hour off road, 1 hour to cross the river, and 8 hours to enter the fen)
• From the Keep to the Giant Spiders' lair is 15 hours (2 hours on the road, 1 hour off road, 1 hour to cross the river, 4 hours across the plains, 1 hour to cross the other river, 4 hours across the plains again, and 2 hours into the forest) instead of 16
• From the Keep to the Raider Camp is 11 hours (2 hours on the road, 1 hour offroad, 1 hour to cross the river, 4 hours across the plains, and 3 hours into the forested hills) instead of 10
• From the Keep to the Mad Hermit's lair is 6 hours (3 hours across the plains and 3 hours into the forested hills) instead of 6.5
• From the Keep to the Caves of the Unknown is 13 hours (10 hours on the road, 1 hour offroad, and 2 hours into the forest) instead of 16
• From the Keep to the Caves of Chaos is 15 hours (12 hours on the road, 1 hour offroad, and 2 hours into the forest) instead of 16

I had to make some concessions due to the self-imposed restraint of using hexes as a measurement tool and placing the locations of interest perfectly in the center of the hexes, but most of these travels times are just an hour off from the numbers I originally calculated. The exception is the Caves of the Unknown, which are pretty close to the Caves of Chaos in the original module. At this scale, I can't properly recreate the intended distances (I'd probably have to include them both in the same hex, which I don't want to do).

Now, I think the Mound of the Lizard Men, the Giant Spiders' lair, and the Raider Camp are a little anemic as presented in the original module, so I want to juice them up a little to make them feel like proper AD&D monster lairs using that edition's numbers, since that's probably how I'd run this module. 

My version of the Mound of the Lizard Men contains 40 (!) lizard men (the original contains 7 males, 3 females who fight similarly to males, and 8 young who do not fight - AD&D does not make this distinction, so all 40 of mine are simply fighting lizard people). I would flesh out the lair to make it a muddy warren of burrows and dens, forcing the players to actually get in there and try to use the space to their advantage. My lizard men do not simply come parading out to be killed. I imagine this environment would play similarly to the Caves of Chaos themselves, with tight corridors and lots of united enemies which can quickly be mobilized to respond together to threats.

I'm okay with leaving the spiders basically as is, but I would change them to AD&D's giant spiders (the module uses black widow spiders, which aren't explicitly a monster type in AD&D). AD&D's giant spiders have a bit more hit dice, better AC, and do less damage. Otherwise they're basically the same.

B2's Raider Camp contains a dozen chaotic fighters - hardly enough to pose any real threat to the Keep. To make them a more proper and dangerous faction in the sandbox, I'm going to treat them as brigands (Chaotic Evil bandits). My Raider Camp has 100 brigands led by five 3rd level fighters, three 4th level fighters, two 5th level fighters, two 6th level fighters, a 7th level lieutenant, and a 9th level leader with six 2nd level guards. They have nine important prisoners and 30 camp followers and slaves.

I want to bring this region more in line with the wilderness stocking described in AD&D's Appendix B. I have 49 hexes total, and 16% of them should contain either a settlement, stronghold, or ruin - that's seven or eight hexes. I already have the Keep and the Caves of the Unknown, which I'm going to classify as a dungeon/ruin, since that's more or less how it's described in the text. I'm classifying all other locations, including the Caves of Chaos, as monster lairs. That leaves me with five or six areas of inhabitation to add.

Let's go with six. I rolled up two single dwellings, a village, two more strongholds (a deserted keep with a monster and a totally deserted tower), and another ruin (a tomb). Let's add those to the map:

I cluster the settlements around the Keep along the river. The ruined strongholds are off to the east, near the caves. These areas may have once been cleared of forest, but since the strongholds fell into ruin, the forest has reclaimed them. The ruined keep (now inhabited by a will-o-wisp) is the one farther to the east. The ruined tomb is to the northwest of the Keep on the Borderlands. Roads still lead to all three ruins, and the Keep probably charges a toll to use them.

Next I want to determine if I should add any more monster lairs. My rule of thumb is that 10% of plains hexes, 20% of forest and hill hexes, 30% of deep forest and mountain hexes, and 40% of wetland hexes should have monster lairs. As of now I have six empty plains hexes, eight empty forest hexes, five empty hill hexes, one empty deep forest hex, two empty mountain hexes, and nine empty wetland hexes. 

I roll and determine that I need one monster on the plains, one in the forest, one in the hills, and four in the wetlands. I place these and get the following:

Here is my final key:

• 01.01: Brownies
• 01.02: Tomb Ruins
• 01.05: Dwelling
• 01.07: Raider Camp
• 02.01: The Mad Hermit
• 02.03: The Keep on the Borderlands
• 02.04: Village
• 03.05: Dwelling
• 03.06: Ghouls
• 04.06: Giant Weasels
• 05.03: Deserted Tower
• 05.05: The Mound of the Lizard Men
• 05.07: Giant Spiders
• 06.02: The Caves of the Unknown
• 06.07: Tribesmen
• 07.01: Green Dragons
• 07.02: The Caves of Chaos
• 07.04: Deserted Keep (will-o-wisp)
• 07.05: Wolves
• 07.07: Beholder

01.01 Brownie Burrow: This forested hillside burrow is the lair of 11 brownies, chief among them Leongath. They are friendly towards adventurers and particularly helpful to those that are Lawful Good, offering to make or repair mundane items. They were friends of the Mad Hermit (02.01) - before he went mad - and can guide the party to his lair. 

If made aware of the settlements south of the Keep on the Borderlands (02.03), the brownies will eventually migrate there, settling in the surrounding farmlands (01.05, 02.04, and 03.05) before eventually taking up residence in various homesteads.

01.02 Tomb of the Druids: A dungeon for 1st level characters. This forested ruin is little more than a burial mound surrounded by ancient standing stones. Here the druids of the area were entombed. Many died of natural causes, but many more were slain in their conflict with the Cult of Evil Chaos. The dungeon is inhabited by undead and cursed vermin, and the sacred burial grove deep within is guarded by Balaesus, a former druid reanimated as a ghoul out of his desire for revenge. He is hostile to all intruders, suspecting them of being tomb robbers or cultists. 

If the Mad Hermit (02.01) is killed and brought here for interment, Balaesus will become friendly (he assumes that the Cult of Chaos is responsible). He is somewhat knowledgeable about the Cult and knows about their shrine within the Caves of Chaos (07.02).

01.05 Hale Homestead: A peaceful farm tended by Edrin and Mara Hale. They mind their business and are unfriendly towards adventurers, mistaking them for potential brigands. Their son, Tamsin, was captured by brigands and taken to the Raider Camp (01.07) while wandering the fields across the river (02.05).

01.07 Raider Camp: See Dungeon Module B2: The Keep on the Borderlands, but use brigands. There are 100 normal brigands with five 3rd level fighters, three 4th level fighters, two 5th level fighters, and two 6th level fighters. They are led by Sobek (lieutenant) and Geppert. Geppert is protected by six 2nd level guards. The brigands have 30 camp followers and slaves tending to their camp.

The brigands have seven light horses and three medium horses. Groups of ten mounted riders will venture forth into the plains (02.05 and 02.06) daily to snatch up villagers and homesteaders who wander across the river. They have acquired nine prisoners in this way and use them to demand a ransom from the Keep on the Borderlands (02.03).

• Geppert: 9th level fighter. He is neutral towards adventurers and is willing to entertain them on the off-chance that they will be useful in raiding the Keep and its surrounding lands, or as middle men in securing and delivering a ransom from the Keep.
• Sobek: 7th level fighter. He is unfriendly towards adventurers, suspicious that they will reveal the camp's location to the garrison at the Keep.
• Prisoners: Nine in total, includes Tamsin Hale of Hale Homestead (01.05) and several villagers from Southron Village (02.04).

02.01 The Mad Hermit: See Dungeon Module B2: The Keep on the Borderlands. The hermit is a former druid, captured, tortured, and driven mad by the Cult of Evil Chaos in their conflict. He has encountered Gungroyeth of Wyrmwood Cave (07.01) at a distance in the forest east of his lair (03.01 and 03.02) and believes the dragon is a demon conjured by the Cult to devour his soul.

02.03 The Keep on the Borderlands: See Dungeon Module B2: The Keep on the Borderlands. The Keep controls a number of settlements to the south (01.05, 02.04, and 03.05). Several villagers have been captured and taken to the Raider Camp (01.07) and are being ransomed. The Castellan would rather pay adventurers to root out the raiders than pay the ransom. 

Patrols have spotted Gungroyeth of Wyrmwood Cave (07.01) in the forest to the east (03.03) and have heard reports that he flies over the eastern road (05.04, 06.03, and 07.03). The dragon is viewed as a threat to the Keep's survival, and adventurers are encouraged to seek out its lair and slay it.

(I would also make the Castellan at least 9th level, since that's the level at which fighters in AD&D can have strongholds.)

02.04 Southron Village: A peaceful village within the domain of the Keep on the Borderlands (02.03). It has a mixed population of about 900 and is ruled by Lady Althaea, a half-elf aligned with the Keep's Castellan. The village is a gathering place where homesteaders from the surrounding lands grind wheat, bake bread, and trade for goods. The village controls the road leading north to the Keep.

Sir Garrick commands the village militia (about 90 can be mustered in times of urgency) and leads patrols across the river, clashing with brigands from the Raider Camp (01.07). Several of Southron's homesteaders have been captured by the brigands and are being held for ransom. Lady Althaea would prefer to pay the ransom to ensure the safe return of the villagers, but the Castellan will not allow it.

NPCs and their henchmen:

• Delmare: NG human fighter 1. She can be recruited as a henchman by a non-Evil character.
• Reynrielle Smugbottom: N dwarf fighter 1/thief 2. She and Hurlbert dream of getting access to the Keep's inner bailey and stealing everything that isn't nailed down.
• Hurlbert: CN human thief 1
• Vanelis Silentsmile: CE elf fighter 1/magic-user 1/thief 2. He is a secret agent sent by the Cult of Evil Chaos to spy on Southron.
• Shaeris Summerpot: LG halfling fighter 2. She is friendly and can be convinced to aid the party on a sufficiently good-intentioned quest, such as freeing prisoners from the raiders.
• Damiane: LE human fighter 3. She and Xiomara will fight as mercenaries against the raiders if the price is right.
• Xiomara: NE human fighter 1
• Lady Althaea: NG half-elf fighter 8/thief 11. Loyally serves the Castellan, but will recruit adventurers to free prisoners from the Raider Camp.
• Sir Garrick: LG human fighter 7. Wants to make a name for himself in battle with the raiders.
• Squire Padgett: NG human fighter 3
• Magus Awarnach: LN human magic-user 3

03.05 Vetch Homestead: An unassuming homestead on the edge of the swamp. Harlan, Ilyra, and Corvin Vetch live here, eking out an existence at the edge of the lands controlled by the Keep on the Borderlands (02.03). They are friendly towards adventurers, offering hospitality to those on their way northeast or into the swamp.

Corvin is a restless teenager and will want to accompany adventurers on the road as far as the fork leading to the ruined tower. It is difficult to convince his mother and father to allow this, since lizard men (05.05) and wolves (07.05) prey upon travelers on the road, and a dragon (07.01) has been spotted flying over the area.

03.06 Blackfen Hollow: The lair of three ghouls - priests of the Cult of Evil Chaos who were captured and executed by the Castellan of the Keep on the Borderlands (02.03) and dumped here without a burial. They prey upon any who wander into the fens, and have already devoured Ilyra of Vetch Homestead (03.05).

04.06 Blackfen Den: The lair of five giant weasels - two adults and three young (50% grown). The adults' pelts will fetch 2,000 gold pieces each if brought to the Trader in the Keep on the Borderlands (02.03). The young are not yet totally wild and can be trained as hunting animals or guards if taken from their parents. If gifted to the Castellan of the Keep, the Castellan will grant access to the Keep's inner bailey.

05.03 Aramis's Tower: A dungeon for 7th level characters, This ruined tower was once the stronghold of Aramis, a cruel and evil human magic-user concerned principally with strange experiments and arcane power. Aramis lived and died long before the Keep on the Borderlands (02.03) was built, and the forest has since grown to reclaim his ruin. While the tower has collapsed, the mazelike dungeon beneath, where Aramis conducted most of his experiments, is largely intact. 

A pair of umber hulks has moved in, drawn by the strange lingering magical energies. They lair in Aramis's vault in the dungeon's deepest level.

05.05 The Mound of the Lizard Men: See Dungeon Module B2: The Keep on the Borderlands. There are 40 lizard men here. The lizard men prey upon those straying from the road to the north (04.04 and 05.04), lurking in the river to snatch them and carry them back to their lair. They are aware of the ghouls of Blackfen Hollow (03.06), but avoid the place.

05.07 Giant Spiders: See Dungeon Module B2: The Keep on the Borderlands, but use giant spiders instead of black widows.

06.02 The Caves of the Unknown: See Dungeon Module B2: The Keep on the Borderlands. In the spirit of the original module, this area is left undetailed so that the DM can fill it in themselves!

Okay, fine. Let's say it's a dungeon for 1st level characters. My Caves of the Unknown were a dumping ground for Aramis's experiments. Throw in a secret passage or collapsed tunnel leading to Aramis's Tower (05.03), perhaps. The most powerful creature here is an ochre jelly which has been festering in some kind of alchemical sump. There's all sorts of other weird stuff here. Happy?

06.07 Poison Needles Tribe: This tribe are the original inhabitants of the grasslands surrounding the Keep on the Borderlands (02.03). When the Keep was being constructed, they clashed with the garrison and were ultimately forced off their land. To avoid the Keep's frequent patrols, they retreated across the southernmost river. When they came under attack from the Raider Camp (01.07), the tribe fled east into the fens, where they now live in their village.

There are 100 fighting men and women in the village, plus a mix of about 100 noncombatants and children. There is an additional 1st level druid, ten 3rd level fighters, ten 4th level druids, four 4th level subchiefs, and three 6th level druids. They are led by the head druid, Killian, and their chief, Ronan.

• Killian: N human druid 8. Suspects adventurers of being raiders or hired soldiers from the Keep. If convinced otherwise, he will be helpful. He wants the raiders to be driven out, but believes in peaceful coexistence with the Keep if the Castellan will agree to leave the tribe alone.
• Ronan: N human fighter 5. Advises Killian to be suspicious of armed adventurers and other fortune-seekers. He favors an isolationist approach to outsiders.

Giant spiders sometimes wander into the tribe's fens from 05.07. The tribe hunts them and harvests their venom, which the tribe's fighters use on their weapons (save versus poison or be killed). 

07.01 Wyrmwood Cave: This forested cave beneath the roots of a great tree is the den of a mated pair of very old dragons, Gungroyeth and Rustathultox, and their very young offspring, Zergosh. Zergosh is well fed and is in a deep sleep within the lair, while his parents are awake and active, alert to threats from the Caves of Chaos (07.02), the Lawful inhabitants of which often bring the dragons tribute to avoid their wrath.

• Gungroyeth: Large, powerful, and deceptively stealthy. He is of average intelligence and does not speak, but goes out into the forest to hunt for food to bring back to his child and mate.
• Rustathultox: Sleek and regal in appearance. She is very intelligent and capable of speech. In addition to the language of dragons, she speaks the common tongue and the languages of goblins and kobolds. She is the schemer of the pair, remaining in the lair to guard and educate Zergosh. She keeps detailed records of gifts given by the clans of the Caves of Chaos. 
• Zergosh: A disproportioned and overfed very young dragon. Due to his healthy diet, he is often asleep. When awake, he is tutored in the ways of "domain management" by his mother. He is not yet capable of speech.

When hunting, Gungroyeth ranges as far west as the forest east of the Mad Hermit (02.01) and the Keep on the Borderlands (02.03), and as far south as Fenside Cave (07.05). The dragons are largely indifferent towards adventurers, so long as the adventurers do not try to harm the dragons or steal their treasure. They desire the treasures of the Keep, Aramis's Tower (05.03), and Gerwald's Folly (07.04), and wish to drive the Chaotic creatures (who do not bring them tribute) from the Caves of Chaos.

Gungroyeth and Rustathultox each have 8 hit dice and 56 hit points. Zergosh has 7 hit dice and 7 hit points. Like all dragons, they can be subdued and sold. Zergosh, being young, small, and unintelligent, can be sold for just 1,400 gold pieces. Gungroyeth, being larger but unintelligent, is worth 28,000 gold pieces. Rustatholtox, being the only dragon capable of speech, is worth 33,600 gold pieces.

Zergosh is the most likely to remain subdued, followed by Gungroyeth, then by Rustathultox. They are unlikely to serve a Good master for long - for example, if sold to the Castellan of the Keep, they are likely to break free and unleash havoc on everyone inside. Rustathultox, being intelligent, is likely to usurp her master rather than remain subdued - for example, if sold to the Raider Camp (01.07) or the Cult of Evil Chaos, she is likely to overthrow Geppert or the Evil High Priest and rule in their stead.

07.02 The Caves of Chaos: See Dungeon Module B2: The Keep on the Borderlands. The Lawful inhabitants of the Caves (kobolds, orcs, goblins, and hobgoblins) peacefully gather once a month to contribute to a tithe which is then delivered to the dragons of Wyrmwood Cave (07.01) so as to avoid their wrath. The Chaotic inhabitants (bugbears, gnolls, and cultists) do not contribute, which has put the whole valley at risk and heightened tensions among the monster clans.

07.04 Gerwald's Folly: A dungeon for 7th level characters. This ruined keep was built by the magic-user Gerwald to rival Aramis's Tower (05.03). In his attempts to surpass Aramis, Gerwald summoned Barachiel Vex, a pit fiend which eventually slipped its bonds and slew Gerwald. Vex has remained here, studying Gerwald's research to conceive of a way to open a gate to bring his infernal legions to the mortal realm.

Since Gerwald's demise, the ruin has been reclaimed by the forest, and a lonely spirit (a will-o-wisp) now haunts the surface ruins. It is the soul of Gerwald, bound to this world by hatred of Vex. It is friendly towards adventurers, though still very much Chaotic Evil. It attempts to lure adventurers down into the subterranean ruins to confront the fiend, often leading adventurers directly into danger, more so out of blind determination than a desire to see the adventurers perish.

Gerwald's spirit will not aid adventurers in combat except against Vex, though it still understands the languages Gerwald knew in life and may be convinced to help.

07.05 Fenside Cave: This riverside cavern is the home of a pack of seven wolves and their eight cubs. They are desperately hungry and attack any travelers which seem weak. 

They range as far west as the outskirts of Vetch Homestead (03.05), but mainly attack travelers on the road at 05.04 and 06.03. They can be found near Aramis's Tower (05.03), the Caves of the Unknown (06.02), and Gerwald's Folly (07.04). They are occasionally preyed upon by lizard men from the Mound of the Lizard Men (05.05) when ranging into the latter's hunting grounds.

The cubs are not yet totally wild and can be trained as war dogs or hunting beasts if taken from their parents. If gifted to the Castellan of the Keep on the Borderlands (02.03), the Castellan will grant access to the Keep's inner bailey.

07.07 Bogwatcher Warrens: This mazelike marshy crater and its warrens are home to Mirexath the Bogwatcher, a beholder more ancient than any creature in the region. It is hateful and aggressive and will attack any it encounters without listening to reason, though it doesn't travel far from its lair. Despite its lengthy residence in the area, it knows little of what goes on in the region.

Here's a final updated map with some of the monster lair icons changed:

This updated and expanded sandbox definitely distorts some of the intention of the original module. The purpose of the wilderness encounters in the original is to simply provide additional points of interest for the players to investigate. None of them are larger, more complex, or more dangerous than the Caves of Chaos. By beefing up the number of raiders and lizard men in their respective lairs, I'm only reducing the number of viable low level adventure sites in the region.

On the other hand, I've codified the Caves of the Unknown as a 1st level adventure site and have added an additional dungeon for 1st level characters (the Tomb of the Druids). I've also added two 7th level dungeons (Aramis's Tower and Gerwald's Folly). Here is also a breakdown of monster lairs (and the Keep) organized by the level of the most powerful monster found therein:

• Level III: Brownie Burrow, Blackfen Hollow, Blackfen Den, Mound of the Lizard Men, Fenside Cave
• Level IV: Mad Hermit (mountain lion)
• Level V: Giant Spiders
• Level VII: Raider Camp (Geppert), Keep on the Borderlands (Castellan), Poison Needles Tribe (Killian)
• Level VIII: Wyrmwood Cave
• Level X: Bogwatcher's Warren

If we also take for granted the module's suggestion that the Caves of Chaos are fit for 1st to 3rd level characters, than the progression through adventure sites in the region would look something like this: 

Tomb of the Druids/Caves of the Unknown/Caves of Chaos > Brownie Burrow/Blackfen Hollow/Blackfen Den/Mound of the Lizard Men/Fenside Cave > Mad Hermit > Giant Spiders > Raider Camp/Keep on the Borderlands (if the players wanted to say, kill the Castellan)/Aramis's Tower/Poison Needles Tribe/Gerwald's Folly > Wyrmwood Cave > Bogwatcher's Warren.

That's a solid amount of stuff for levels 1 to 3 and level 7. Getting from level 3 to 7 might be a bit challenging, as will getting from level 7 to 10. However, that isn't to say that characters must be of a certain level to confront the corresponding monsters. Level III monsters can appear on the 1st level of the dungeon, level IV and V monsters on the 2nd or 3rd level, level VII monsters on the 5th level, level VIII monsters on the 6th level, and level X monsters on the 7th level. Thus is might be appropriate to say that this sandbox is fit for characters level 1 through 7.

I'm pretty satisfied with this. It's scope creep, but a good kind, where the play area contains a variety of play environments with different levels of challenges, allowing the player characters to grow within it. If I run Keep on the Borderlands at some point, I'll be using this - my Keep on the Borderlands.

Play Environments, Power, Complexity, and Agency in D&D

Location types exist in close proximity to one another but serve very different gameplay functions.

There are basically four main location types in D&D (and D&D-like games): settlements, strongholds, dungeons, and lairs.

You might disagree with this taxonomy. The Welsh Piper's Hex-Based Campaign Design identifies two other types of "major encounters" (or locations): religious orders and natural phenomena, as well as many more "minor encounters" (or locations): camps, beacons, construction sites, battlefields, crossings, gathering places, and more. Sachagoat's Re-Inventing the Wilderness identifies not just towns, lairs, and dungeons but also "scenes" and "utilities". Hexographer has icons for oases, geysers, windmills, wineries, and graveyards. 

You can't really boil all the locations player characters might encounter in their adventures down to just these four broad categories. But these are, I believe, the "core four" locations around which a D&D-like game tends to be structured. They are the major locations characters will be interacting with again and again. 

There might be one settlement or stronghold which serves as a home base, a single megadungeon that props up the whole campaign, and one big bad monster lair such as a dragon's den or an orc camp which threatens the entire region until it is dealt with, or there may be many settlements to familiarize oneself with, many strongholds whose rulers must be obeyed or subverted, many dungeons to haul treasure out of, and many monster lairs to clear out or otherwise deal with.

Three of the four location types are those on the AD&D DMG's Inhabitation table:

Lairs are not included because it is assumed that these will be discovered when monsters are randomly encountered in their lair based on the % in lair statistic. I prefer to stock my sandboxes with these lairs ahead of time, which makes them set locations. Thus, when I create a sandbox, I'm populating it with these four location types. First I'm checking each hex for human inhabitation (including ruins). Once all areas of inhabitation are determined, I check the remaining hexes for monster lairs.

While I'm not going to argue that Gygax was right about everything or that his approach to designing D&D should color our perception of all such games in the present and into perpetuity, I do find this distillation of location types into a manageable few to be appealing. There are certainly others, but to me these feel very much like the most important, central locations in a campaign. (I replace religious orders, as defined by the Welsh Piper, with strongholds ruled by religious character-types like clerics, druids, paladins, and monks. And how many groves, stables, windmills, and wineries are keystone locations in the average campaign? I think it's not many.)

For further reading, I recommend my post on creating minimalist sketches of these four location types for the initial stages of sandbox prep. I think that's a good primer for better understanding the four location types and what I consider to be the most important information to know about each before diving into more detail-oriented prep.

What interests me about these four location types is what gameplay utility and experience each provides - that is, what is each location type for and how does it feel to interact with each?

Since my primary focus at this time is AD&D, I will be analyzing this topic through that lens. Not every D&D-like game will have settlements filled with unhelpful NPCs and burdensome taxes, strongholds ruled by character-types of a specific level with a specific number of men-at-arms, dungeons which conform to that particular early D&D logic, or lairs containing hundreds of orcs, but AD&D has come to color my perception of D&D and its derivatives as a whole, and many of the ideas here are still broadly applicable to similar games.

Settlements

I've already written a great deal about settlements in AD&D, the purpose they serve, and the vibe they give off. In short, they are incredibly useful places where player characters can accomplish mundane tasks such as reprovisioning, recruiting henchmen, and gathering information, as well as more fantastic efforts such as acquiring spellcasting services from high-level NPCs or even auctioning off captive dragons and selling monster organs.

While being useful, settlements are also often unfriendly, oppressive, and incredibly dangerous places where player characters are strangers and viewed as threats to the powers-that-be, where relentless taxes check their rampant accumulation of wealth, NPCs are sensitive jerks, diseases flourish, powerful factions war with one another in the streets, and almost everyone you encounter is trying to trick you, call the guards on you, rob you, fight you, or even kill you for looking at them funny.

Due to their nature as densely packed social environments with labyrinthine rules, odd taboos, and resourceful individuals and groups with independent interests in the player characters and what they do, settlements are immensely complex environments where the players must carefully consider and prepare for each move they make. 

It is this element of settlements which enables them to provide their other gameplay function (aside from sheer utility): political intrigue and high-level faction play. Above all, settlements are a test of the player's mastery of the complex social fabric.

Settlements are the lifeblood of an adventurer, allowing them to turn treasure into gold, gold into experience points, experience points into levels, NPCs into contacts, contacts into information, and information into further adventure. They also don't exist solely for the player characters' pleasure and utility. While they might serve as a home base to the characters, they are also highly dangerous. A wise player of a low level character will spend as little time as possible within a large settlement like a town or city before turning their attention back to those environs in which the adventurer truly belongs.

Dungeons

Dungeons are the low level adventurer's true home. Considering that low level player characters in a town or city might stumble into a high-level NPC who has a problem with them, a demon that's escaped a cleric's or wizard's control, or a vampire that wants to suck their blood, they really shouldn't be there if they can avoid it - or at the very least, they should avoid going out for a walk at night as much as they can. 

Similarly, they have no armies with which to contend with stronghold rulers or enough renown to be welcomed into the Keep on the Borderlands's inner bailey, and they are not strong enough to venture into the unpredictable wilderness and start clearing out dragon dens and orc camps. Dungeons, on the other hand, are much more suitable environments for early career adventurers.

Dungeons are "balanced". The 1st level of the dungeon is fit for exploration by 1st level characters. The monsters therein are drawn from a handful of tables including creatures that such characters could reasonably fight or otherwise overcome or engage with. It gets more dangerous the further down they go. Unlike the town or city, the dungeon is a simple environment with rules which are fairly easy to grasp. 

Obviously, that doesn't mean the dungeon is safe - there are monsters, tricks, traps, and other nasty things. Higher level monsters can wander up from deeper levels of the dungeon. A trick stairway might turn into a slide that sends the party down more levels than they wished to descend. A falling ceiling trap may instantly kill an adventurer of any level. They might get lost within, never to escape.

The value of a dungeon to an adventure is that it is a relatively simple environment with easily understood rules and structure. It is a place to collect treasure and experience points early in the game when the player characters are most vulnerable. Dungeons do not usually contain groups of monsters which require a small army to uproot, and there is not usually a powerful ruler sticking their nose in the party's business and exerting their will upon them.

That's not to say that dungeons are without intrigue. Just as settlements offer complex political faction play, dungeons have factions too - they're just (usually) smaller. The factions in dungeons aren't guilds of thieves and assassins with high-level cutthroats at their disposal or merchant consortiums that control the levers of power - they're groups of 2d4 hobgoblins, 4d4+2 kobolds, and d6+6 orcs (at least initially).

While factions and social play are important in dungeons, this is not the primary challenge of these locations. Rather, dungeons are a test of the player's mastery of a space. The primary mode of play in these environments is exploration. 

Play in dungeons is concerned with figuring out and dealing with whatever's in the next room. If there are monsters, how do the player characters overcome them, circumvent them, or collaborate with them? If there's a trick, what does it do? If there's a trap, how does the party disarm it or get around it? If there's treasure, how do they identify it and get it out? 

More advanced is not just confronting the dungeon room by room, but understanding the broader picture and how the room fits into the greater space. How does the room connect to others? Can the party use that information to plan an ambush or a tactical retreat? Where is it safe to rest? Where are the secret doors? The stairways? The hidden dungeon entrances and exits? What is the fastest route to the party's goal which allows them to minimize encounters with wandering monsters?

Exploration is key to settlement play as well, but like much of settlement play, the medium through which information is acquired is social. Players learn where to find an inn, where to buy equipment, and where to go to recruit henchmen by asking around. They learn how to buy and sell smuggled goods, where the assassins' guildhall is, and how to infiltrate the palace by leveraging their connections. They don't (usually) do it by mapping all the buildings on graph paper, looking for spatial discrepancies, and knocking on the right 10' section of wall (although they could, I suppose). Navigating the physical space of the settlement is less important than navigating its social dynamics.

Strongholds and Lairs

I feel compelled to address both strongholds and lairs together, since the two are difficult to parse. Is not a stronghold the lair of its ruler? Is not a monster's lair a place where it fortifies itself against intrusion by adventurers? A group of bandits, berserkers, brigands, or dervishes might rule a stronghold as their lair. A group of demihumans or humanoids or even a dragon might lair in a deserted stronghold.

It is worth pointing out that there are different kinds of monster lairs. What exactly a lair looks like is determined by the type of monster that lives there. It could be a cave, a camp, a village, a castle, or something else entirely. The most important distinction is not so much the type of place but the quality of creature therein - namely, is the monster intelligent or not, and does it appear in numbers or with minions?

The lair of an owlbear is a relatively simple - though still dangerous - environment, while a lair of orcs is more complex because of their greater numbers, ability to organize to repel invaders, and respond intelligently to repeated attempts to infiltrate their home. Whether they live in a cave, fortified village, or ruin will make a difference, but not a huge one. A dragon's lair might be comparable to an owlbear's if it's a dimwitted variety of dragon. It will be more complex if the dragon is intelligent or cunning, and even more so if the dragon has enlisted a small humanoid army as worshipers or mercenaries.

The idea for this post initially came to me after reading dungeon modules B1: In Search of the Unknown and B2: The Keep on the Borderlands. I felt that B1 is a good example of a prototypical dungeon (itself a deserted stronghold) and that B2's titular Keep and Caves of Chaos are good examples of a stronghold and a lair (or series of lairs), respectively. 

But reading through the Caves of Chaos, with their large homogenous populations of allied monsters who can all be mobilized to ward off intrusion together, along with their tightly-packed corridors where control of strategic chokepoints would prove essential, I wondered, "Is this really that different from a stronghold?" Whether the players choose to clear out the Caves or ally with their inhabitants to instead lay siege to the Keep, does the actual gameplay experience of doing either of those two things differ all that much?

Gus L. writes about this element of Gygaxian design better than I ever could in his post on All Dead Generations, Gygax's Fortress. In it, he writes about how many of Gygax's iconic adventurers like The Keep on the Borderlands, the Against the Giants series, and the Vault of the Drow (all of which detail what I would classify as "lairs") put siege-style gameplay front and center. Siege, you say...like the thing you do to a stronghold?

This is not to say that there is otherwise no overlap between all of these location types. The ruler of a settlement might dwell in a fortified tower. The Keep on the Borderlands is a place to provision and gather information as much as the Village of Hommlet. A settlement might contain a ruined manor which is essentially a dungeon, and a dungeon might house a large group of squatters or other inhabitants which form a de facto settlement within. Monsters might lair in settlements just as they do in the wilderness, and a wilderness elf enclave is a settlement of a kind. A ruin could have once been a stronghold. Monsters lair in ruins.

But the relationship between strongholds and lairs strikes me as different because they feel so similar when you consider how the players interact with them. If the players wish to roust an evil ruler from their castle, it's going to look very similar to clearing out the Caves of Chaos - a protracted series of forays into a defensible position held by an organized, (mostly) united enemy.

Much of this can be chalked up to aesthetics. A stronghold is a stronghold because it is a tower, keep, or castle. It has a gatehouse, battlements, oil cauldrons, ballistae, catapults, or whatever. A lair is a lair because it's a cave, an informal camp, or a hut in the woods. But it isn't always that - hobgoblins and orcs sometimes lair in above ground villages with ditches, ramparts, palisades, gates, and guard towers. Many giants and aquatic creatures like locathah and tritons live in castles.

You could also attribute the difference to ideology. A stronghold is a stronghold because the creature who rules it is viewed as a person or as part of the established order, regardless of their alignment or relationship to their neighbors. A lair is a lair because it is inhabited by crude monsters who are outsiders, without rights or the privilege of simply living. It's essentially Law versus Chaos.

That's all well and good (or bad, I guess), but it's unsatisfying to me because I'm primarily concerned with the gameplay function of these locations - what use do they present to the players, and how do the players engage with them? From that perspective, how are strongholds and lairs different?

One way to think of it is how the locations project power. Strongholds control a certain area around them and collect revenue from the settlements within their domain. They send out patrols of men-at-arms led by high level fighters. The stronghold's ruler might emerge to challenge the party to a joust, demand a tithe of treasure or magic items, or ensorcel the party to send them on some quest. Monsters in their lairs, on the other hand, just wait around for the party to come kill them and take their stuff.

But this is a disservice to monsters, and not entirely true. Monsters with a lair in the area should be included on wilderness encounter tables. Orcs can go out on patrol too, mounted bandits will surely raid any inhabited areas within their sphere of influence, and flying monsters like dragons can control and have influence over the entirety of a small region, even demanding tithes of treasure from settlements within their domain much the same way a stronghold's ruler might.

You could also make a distinction between the two on the basis of their relative locations. Strongholds are generally found in inhabited areas, whereas monster lairs are found in the wilderness. Strongholds are known locations and readily accessible to the players should they have the means to take them, whereas monster lairs are hidden and remote, requiring scouting to find and wilderness travel to reach.

This too does not hold up to scrutiny. More dangerous monsters are generally found in the wilderness, yes, but monsters lair in inhabited areas as well. Humans, demihumans, humanoids, giants, and even vampires can establish their lairs in close proximity to settlements, strongholds, roads, and cultivated farmland. If one of these creatures lairs in a fortified camp or stronghold, its location is likely known, and it is probably well within reach of player characters launching forays from inhabited lands.

You could attribute the difference to logistics. Taking a stronghold requires a small army and siege weapons - but clearing some monster lairs will require these as well. According to the AD&D DMG's Appendix C, a stronghold will have its ruler, up to five henchmen, and as many as 64 men-at-arms led by four low-to-medium level fighters. On the other hand, a gnoll lair can have up to 200 gnolls, 10 leaders, a chieftain, 20 guards, and either three trolls, 16 hyenas, or 12 hyaenodons. Humans, demihumans, and other humanoids also appear in numbers up to the hundreds with leader-types and (often) other monsters in their service. 

These will need to be faced with armies as well - and in many cases, armies which are larger than those needed to deal with strongholds. Facing a monster lair in the form of the aforementioned hobgoblins' fortified village or giants' castle will likewise require the use of siege weapons, just as strongholds do.

The distinction might also be a matter of politics. Strongholds are part of the established order - they are fortified positions in which armies can be mustered, which control a surrounding area and collect revenue from its inhabitants. Powerful people within the social fabric of the campaign will generally care one way or another about what happens to a stronghold, and they will be sticking their noses in the player characters' business if they get wind of a plot to usurp a local ruler.

But that's not to say that people won't care what happens to a monster lair. Goodly folk will likely be appalled if they hear that the party led an army to massacre a village of elves, and a powerful Evil magic-user who rules the local town will be none too pleased to find that the party has slain a manticore with which the magic-user was secretly aligned. Similarly, people's feelings about the fate of a stronghold can go both ways - fury if the party burns down a monastery inhabited by peaceable monks, or jubilation if they overthrow a tyrannical warlord.

The difference is utility. A stronghold is real estate which the player characters may now control. They are probably not going to take up residence in a cave cleared of goblins (and would not be able to raise an army there or collect revenue from it in any case), and might not be able to make much use of a castle proportioned for inhabitation by giants, but a conquered stronghold is a readymade base of operations for the player characters going forward, which will come with both perks as well as obligations.

All of these locations exist on a gradient which is perhaps best viewed through the lens of power, complexity, and player agency. Dungeons are relatively simple environments where players have a high level of agency despite their characters not having much power. There are factions within, but they are small. A local ruler might have opinions about what goes on in the dungeon and may lay claim to what is hauled out of it, but their ability to exert control over it is limited. Players of low level characters by comparison have much less agency in highly complex settlements, where powerful factions and high level NPCs rule, influence, and exert themselves upon those weaker than them.

Strongholds are somewhere in the middle. They are fortified, ruled by high level NPCs, and involved in regional politics, but they are not so formidable that they cannot be overcome by medium level characters, and their position (often) on the borderlands of civilization means that the more powerful rulers of settlements' influence over them will be somewhere between that of nearby dungeons and that of the settlements themselves. However the players address them will require some consideration and planning because they are of medium complexity.

So what then is the role of monster lairs? Because they can vary so much, they fluctuate along the gradient. They are stepping stones from one level of power, complexity, and agency to the next - the owlbear den is probably more dangerous than the dungeon levels the player characters have explored up to that point, but it is not any more complex (it might even be simpler), and the players have considerable agency in addressing it because it is unlikely that anyone will retaliate against them for clearing it out. These lairs give the players the experience (both in terms of experience points as well as accumulated knowledge) to later tackle more challenging locations like strongholds.

The lair of hundreds of organized men, demihumans, or humanoids may in some cases be an even tougher nut to crack than a stronghold ruled by a character-type, but past experience with such a stronghold (and the accumulation of revenue and mustering of an army in such a place, should the characters be able to hold it) will prepare them for the challenge. It is a more complex environment than the owlbear den because the monsters there will be true factions of their own - meaning powerful individuals will have opinions about them, which in turn will limit the players' agency. Like the owlbear den before it which provided the bridge to engaging with stronghold play, this type of lair will be the launchpad into high level play in towns and cities, with the player characters now powerful enough to assert their agency there.

We can summarize the complexity/agency gradient as a semi-linear progression as follows, from low complexity/high agency environments which require only a low level of player character power to engage with to high complexity/low agency ones which require greater player character power: dungeons > simple monster lairs > strongholds > complex monster lairs > settlements. 

There are of course more complex and challenging dungeons (or simply deeper, more dangerous levels of the same dungeons in which play begins), as well as simpler settlements (a thorp and a city are very different environments). We could complicate the progression like so: dungeons/simple settlements (thorps, hamlets, and villages) > simple monster lairs > moderate complexity settlements (towns)/moderate complexity monster lairs (where monsters are intelligent/faction-like but not huge in number (a clan of ogres, for example)/strongholds > complex monster lairs (a clan of 100 orcs, for example) > complex settlements (cities).

This is reflected nicely in my sandbox for B1: In Search of the Unknown. In that post, I anticipate that the players will begin by tackling Quasqueton, then venture into the wilderness to deal with the less complex monster lairs (the leprechaun, the giant eagles, and the owlbears), then graduate to the brigand stronghold and the slightly more complex/challenging ogre lair and adventurer camp, before finally being able to confront the evil illusionist who rules the local town.

None of this is prescriptive - the illusionists' stronghold is right in the middle of town, and the adventurer camp, brigands' castle, and ogre den are nearby. There's nothing stopping the player characters from checking those places out in the very first session, but they will face considerable challenge should they choose to try confronting them. This challenge might be readily apparent to the players, but if I'm conscious of it as well, I can be sure to signpost the danger in rumor tables and interactions with NPCs.

Regardless of how exactly we define it, understanding this progression is key because it informs how campaign play is structured. Player characters begin with a relatively small amount of power and a limited ability to affect the world. They begin play in less complex environments, which they can affect without entangling themselves in overwhelming complications. As they accumulate power, their ability to affect the world grows, allowing them to tackle more challenging environments while being equipped to deal with the complications which arise.

Each of these locations is essential to a standard D&D-like game not only because they provide different gameplay experiences to the players and utilities to the characters, but because each is a stepping stone to the next type of adventure environment, allowing the campaign to evolve in scale alongside the player characters' growing ability to affect the setting.

The AD&D Series, 2026 Collector's Edition

The 2026 Bloggies are upon us, and I plan on submitting a handful of mine - and, of course, others'. If you've enjoyed reading this blog in 2025, I would greatly appreciate you submitting and voting for your favorite of my posts. Blogging has been a big part of my year, and it would mean a lot to me to at least make it into one or more brackets. Maybe one of my posts will go on a little run or hey, even win something. That would be neat.

First and foremost, I'd like to submit to the Best Series category my posts analyzing the AD&D DMG. The thing is, those posts were never intended to be a series, and weren't labeled as such. The series evolved naturally over time as interesting things to talk about continued to pop out at me. This makes it difficult to figure out what post exactly to submit.

So, here is one post with the whole series collected in one place:

• Stocking a Sandbox with the AD&D DMG (Part 1)
• Stocking a Sandbox with the AD&D DMG (Part 2)
• d66 Reasons Why the Castle is Totally Deserted
• Stocking a Sandbox with the AD&D DMG (Part 3)
• Dead Gods Waiting to be Reborn: Ruined Shrines and the Syncretist Cleric in AD&D
• Your High-Level NPCs Should Ride Dragons
• d100 Woefully Encysted Creatures
• Gangs of Teenage Dragons Roam the Wilderness: The Implied Lifecycle of Dragons in AD&D
• Death, Taxes, and Indentured Servitude in AD&D Cities
• There's a Road to the Dungeon, and It's Paid for by Adventurers
• Non-Descript Danger: Vagueness and Similarity in AD&D City and Town Encounters
• Dealing with NPCs Should Be Expensive and Irritating
• Good Henchmen are Hard to Find
• Adventurers Are a Threat to the Established Order
• It Did Not End with a Mere Slaying of Ogres: Treasure as a Source of Challenge in D&D
• Advanced Diseases and Diagnoses
• Warring Guilds and Rogue Assassins Plague the Streets of AD&D
• The Monster Economy of AD&D
• Speak with Monsters: The Languages of AD&D and the Adventurous Linguist
• Alignment Languages are Socially Repulsive
• Strangers in a Strange Land
• Where are AD&D's High-Level NPCs?
• The Implied Setting of AD&D Towns & Cities: Four Themes
• Who Can Rule a Stronghold in AD&D?

And yes, I did include this same list in my year-in-review post, which went up...yesterday. But submitting a year-in-review post didn't really make sense.

If you've enjoyed this series and what to submit it for consideration, please use this post. That is all the campaigning I'll be doing on the blog. Thank you!