Convoluting the Depthcrawl
I'm working on an adventure for Renegades & Razzcals, my work-in-progress weird fantasy game with Creative Wronging, and I've decided to try my hand at a depthcrawl, as that seems appropriate for the massive, danger-filled chasm where the adventure will take place.
In the grand OSR tradition of tinkering with procedures, however, I'm not just going with the depthcrawl as originally concieved by Emmy Allen, but making it much more convoluted by mashing in some elements of the Labyrinth Move by Jason Cordova and The Underclock by Arnold K.
Is any of this necessary? That's questionable, but I think it's at least worth checking out, as I like the procedure it might produce.
The main part that isn't fleshed out yet is the location tables, but based on some advice from Paolo of Lost Pages on Bluesky, I'm doing it as a d10 rather than a d20 to create less overlap in when particular locations might appear and differentiate the depths more from each other.
I'll be playtesting this next weekend, but any feedback prior to that is also welcome.
Navigation Roll
Roll 2d6 to navigate between locations at the current depth:
2–4 - Arrive at a new location and take 2 chasm tokens.
5–9 - Arrive at a new location and take 1 chasm token.
10–12 - Get lost, eventually returning to your last location, and lose all chasm tokens.
Backtracking
Players must take time to map their path through the chasm in order to safely backtrack. Spending 1 turn resting and mapping allows players to backtrack to the last three locations they visited. Without a map, they must make a navigation roll to attempt to backtrack.
Locations
Roll 1d10+Depth to determine the location players reach. All locations have 1d100*Depth gp worth of treasure spread around the space, with some having additional special treasures available. Roll for traps, obstacles, or inhabitants as called for in the location descriptions.
Chasm Tokens
Chasm tokens represent directional knowledge of the chasm players gain through exploration, ultimately allowing them to find significant features. Players may spend chasm tokens to advance to the next depth or to discover a hidden location on their current level.
The cost to advance to the next depth is equal to the depth rating (e.g., advancing from Depth 5 to Depth 6 costs 6 chasm tokens).
The cost to discover a hidden location is equal to the current depth rating (e.g., discovering a location at Depth 5 costs 5 chasm tokens).
Danger Clock
The danger clock starts at 0, and an encounter will occur when it reaches 20-Depth. Players should be aware of the current clock value and plan accordingly.
The clock advances in two ways:
1 - The result of any navigation roll is added to the clock.
2 - If players spend more than one turn in a single location, make loud noise, or otherwise attract attention, roll 1d6 and add the result to the clock.