PROCEDURAL TUNNEL CRAWL

 

(Written for Vampire, but easily fits into any sort of old school urban/ horror adventure game)

In my V20 game, the players are preparing to delve into the abandoned coal railway tunnels beneath Chicago's Loop in search of their enemy's lair.  I designed the tunnel system as a point crawl map along with a series of random tables in order to generate each "node" as they make their way through. 

Although the characters have a map, and know approximately where they need to go, the system itself is only navigable through a series of possible passageways. Additionally, they've  been given a choice of three possible above ground starting points (the sub-levels of historical buildings) where the tunnels are accessible. The closer the access point is to their final destination, the higher the security risk, so there's a trade off from the beginning. They can deal with more security and surveillance above ground and bypass a few nodes underground, or start from a relatively safe access point that's further away.

The Map!

3 POSSIBLE ENTRY POINTS

1. Chicago Cultural Center. Mayor’s reception venue. Grand ballroom where rich people throw parties. Not in use at the moment. Fairly antiquated security system, and light on-site security guards. Access in sublevel, in an old coal burning room, now used for storage. Farthest away from destination.
2. Palmer House Hilton. Gilded age hotel, struggling financially. Cameras and security guards, but underfunded and understaffed. Basement access to old tunnel, bricked up in the back of a laundry room. Midway point to destination.
3. Tribune Tower. Neo-gothic skyscraper. Offices. Center of loop, state of the art security and patrols. Bricked up access port in the pipeworks sub-level. Closest point to destination.

ENVIRONMENT 

• The old rail tunnels are cramped 7' high and 6' wide shafts. They intersect the subway system and sewer at intervals,  getting considerably wider at points. In other cases they are choked with debris, and partially collapsed making them much more narrow.
•  The whole system is a patchwork of old and new construction making the network unpredictable and dangerous. It's also the exclusive domain of a sadistic Nosferatu who has set numerous deadly traps throughout.

1. Standard, clear tunnel.
2. Heavy wooden ribbing and supports holding ceiling and wall in place. Precarious.
3. Narrows. Crawl to proceed
4. Open area. Hub, vaulted ceiling
5. Collapsed, impassible
6. Much wider tunnel (subway line)
7. Old subways jamming tunnel, must be crawled through
8. Trap!

Traps

1. Pit Trap with spikes
   
2. Stakes shoot from wall shaft
3. Bricks fall from ceiling cache
   
4. Pendulum blade
5.  Acid bottles from ceiling cache
6.  Wet area rigged with live electric cable

 Mechanism 

(where applicable)

1. Trip wire
2. pressure plate
3. rigged door

TUNNEL FEATURES

1. Filled with heavy boxes and crates (coal, concrete, railroad ties, tar)
   
2. Unstable floor (drops to pit)
3. Unstable supports (might collapse area)
4. The sign of Zelios: his sign can be seen carved into bas relief ornamentation (the harlequin mask, roses, and a medallion with the letter Z, Latin inscription: “by the hand of the architect, immortal.)
5. Strange effigies and fetish objects hang from the ceiling (bones, stones, etc.) Occult symbols painted on wall.
6. Filled with old broken coal-filled railway cars
7. Vermin nest
8. People down here (homeless, explorers, graffiti kids, etc.)
9. Dead bodies/ skeletons beneath rubble (animals, human, or otherwise)
10. Flooded
11. Choked with debris & trash
12. Bricked up. Break through or turn back.

TEXTURES

1. Water dripping rhythmically from sweating pipes above.
2. Rumbling of a nearby subway. Dirt debris dislodging in a spray
3. Exposed pipeworks emitting gouts of white billowing steam.
4. The sound of loud rushing water through grates in the ground
5. Vast graffiti mural. Occult symbols punctuated throughout.
6. Sound of traffic seems to echo from above (although obviously far off)
7. Footsteps seem to follow the PCs. They die off when the PCs stop to listen. A moving figure just beyond range of light in the distance
8. Distant sounds: strange laughter, dog barking,soft crying (may lead to trap)
   
9. A small railcar is seen in the distance moving through an intersecting tunnel. Upon inspection, the tracks are torn up, and the tunnel is filled with rubble.
10. A piece of coal is thrown at the PCs from somewhere in the darkness ahead. There is no one there.
11. The temperature drops to ice cold for no apparent reason
12. Heavy scratching in the walls and ceiling. Claws marks rending through stone and wood.

SKETCHES OF CALYX

 Here are 3 city districts from my in-progress City of Calyx setting for old school D&D.

Insula District

Residential district of of Calyx’s middle class. Multi-storied (1d6 stories) brick and stone insulas with clay shingles built up against the cliff face. Narrow streets and alleys run between them.
 

Features (roll 1 or more)

1. 1d6 Extra stories, rickety ladders reach to small precarious apartments high above
2. Unstable, the whole insula is reinforced with timbers to keep it from falling over
3. Decorative- painted with brightly colored patterns and botanical motifs
4. Ornamental- bas relief carvings and gargoyles adorn the exterior
5. Exterior walls covered in thick vines of dark green ivy and small purple flowers. Bees and hummingbirds drawn to the sweet blossoms.
6. Abandoned, and ramshackle. Floors have collapsed in on themselves. Thistle and sweetbrush grow rampantly within. Great sagging wasp nests.
7. Hundreds of clay and twig nests built along the eaves. Countless chattering iridescent grackles congregate upon the roof.
8. Apartments carved out of an outcrop of stone cliffside.
9. Under construction- new building being built or old one being repaired. Crew of laborers with several carts of bricks, mortar and timber
10. Over crowded. Each apartment is bursting to capacity with tenents. Clothes lines heavy with  fabrics sag between close buildings. Colorful rugs are draped from every balcony.
    

People of the Insula District

1. Merchant families
   
2. Skilled laborers
3. Low ranking city bureaucrats
4. City officials
5. Guards/ soldiers
   
6. Guild artists/ artisans
7. Minor philosophers/ poets
8.  Scholars

Bazaar District

Overlapping patchwork of colorful tents and canopies cover four city blocks. A maze of bustling activity, commerce, shops, food stalls, music, revelry and criminal enterprise. Just about anything can be found here for the right price: rich food, exotic regents, rare animals, weapons and equipment, all manner of services for hire (legal and illegal).

Tents of the Bazaar

1. Patchwork of faded fabric, sagging, propped up by spindly wooden sticks
2. Sturdy & large white and red striped rotunda, doors and windows
3. Animal skins, with bits of fur and flesh still attached. Smells of tannins and rot
4. Billowing red fabric. Multiple rooms separated by veils and beaded curtains
5. Vibrant blue, orange and yellow. Pit dug below, with a ladder leading to a stall. Workers dig even deeper as the vendor conducts business below.
6. Wooden platform 15 feet above accessible by ladder. A sign reads: “remove clothes before ascending”. Above, a tent of white and golden fabrics swish in the sun. Mirrors and dangling glass catch the sunlight.
7. Black tarps piled on top of each other, creating a cave like tunnel. Small corridors lead to various openings and stalls of ill repute.
8. Geometric patterned tapestries, opens into chamber thick with incense. Piles of thick rugs heaped on the ground. Sound is muffled.

Food of the Bazaar

1. Roasted white grubs on a skewer
2. Giant frogs smoked on a line over a fire pit
3. Bag o’ spicy locusts
4. Sorghum brick with solar escagraph
5. Honey millet stick with crunchy ants
6. Lizard jerky
7. Monkey meat pita with llama yogurt
8. Honey glazed dog leg
9. Pepper snake on a stick
10. Fried whole sparrow with sage
11. Boiled white tubers
12. Produce: figs, pomegranates, olives, dates, almonds, muskmelon, grapes
13. Sorghum beer: cloudy brown, earthy and sweet, highly alcoholic
14. Sorghum desserts and fried pastries
15. Jellied frog eggs on sorghum chips
    
16.  Honeycomb with live bees
17. Goat sausage boiled in blood
18. Almond paste biscuits (various erotic shapes)
    
19. Pomegranate liquor
20.  Pickled peacock eggs
    

Merchant stalls

1. Food stall merchant (roll on food table to determine which)
2. Animal handler drawing cages of exotic beasts to a menagerie tent,
3. Psychedelic dealer. Various substances in pots and jars within a locked box: diviners sage, scorpion venom, black tar incense, live blue centipedes, dream grass, worm powder, witch cactus,
4. Alchemical regents and magic items
5. Clay pots and vessels sold by women from the mud district
6. Ponchos & grass sombreros
7. Multicolored gems, geodes and stones
8. Haircuts, weaves and beard styling
9. Incense & exotic desert spices
10. Reader of palms & fortunes
    
11. Brass solar medallions, good luck charms, protective talismans
12. Massage/ Acupuncture therapy
13. Brothel. Lovely ladies and lads available for comfort and companionship.
14. Apiary. Bees cover the tent walls & fly out of an open roof flap. Wooden hives contain copious fresh honey.
15. Tea tent. A small iron stove with copper kettles filling the tent with billowing steam.
16. Greenhouse, woven white mesh. Humid. Tables of plants and blooming flowers. Bees
17. Art gallery. Paintings hung in carved frames.
18. Goldsmith and purveyor of fine jewels
19. Map merchant and scribe
    
20. Tattoo & piercing parlor

People of the Bazaar

1. Twin women in peacock feather dresses stand on stilts, juggling knives and flaming torches. Trained monkeys pick pockets during their performance.
2. Grass elves (black sombreros, multicolored ponchos) transporting giant insect nymphs tied down to a wagon. Insects are docile and drugged with Diviner’s Sage.
3. Red wizards haggling and threatening a vendor for regents
4. Drunk youth brawling and expelling vomiting in the street
5. Ascetic street preachers in loincloths painted bodies with arcane symbols ranting about “the Singing Presence” and “the Father of a Thousand Forms”.
6. Wide eyed, naive and inhumanly beautiful humanoids with exotic skin colors (blue, red, purple, green) follow in the company of a Red Wizard (beings grown from the vivimancer's vats in the Arcane College).
7. Vestal virgins from the Shrine of the Moons wearing silvery togas,veils and long braided hair. Processing silently to the temple of Utu for daily homage and back. Carrying silver sickles.
8. 1d4 adventurers fresh from the Rift. (1. Carrying a dead companion 2. Raving psychotically about the Elder Gods or the Great Old Ones 3. Partying ferociously in the back of a wagon 4. Selling a cache of rift artifacts/ Monster parts/ Foraged psychedelics/ Geodes)
9. Street artists involved in a performance
10. Teenagers hallucinating wildly. Pockets are full of various psychedelic herbs.
    
11. Philosophers arguing over esoteric metaphysics.
    
12. Gladiators covered in scars, followed by throngs of adoring fans.
    

Domus District

Gated wealthy neighborhood of beautiful villas behind a high stone wall. Troops of chattering monkeys roost in the olive and almond trees that grow here. They are notorious for stealing baubles and coins and hide them among the branches. Children will often sneak into the district just to steal anything of value from the treetop roosts.

Structures

1. Stone manor faced with high fluted columns & ornate pediment.
2. Two story villa. Stucco & red clay shingles. Inner courtyard with flowering redbud and yellow ginkgo trees..
3. Shrine to a minor god of fertility or love. Lovers cavorting in the bushes.
4. Private well, solar motifs. Servants drawing buckets for their lords & ladies.
5. Herb garden, overgrown with flowering sage, rhubarb, rhododendron and sweet brush. Birds, rabbits, and red fox nest here.
6. Large pavilion with a stage and long stone bleachers.
7. Glass enclosed greenhouse filled with blooming flowers. Buzzing with bees.
   
8. A walled park of fig, olive & pomegranate trees. Gazebo, benches & statuary
9. Bath House with veined columns and voluptuous nude statuary.
10. Menagerie filled with exotic birds, monkeys, reptiles & occasional monster
    

People of Domus District

1. Wealthy merchants in opulent robes and jewelry
2. Sorghum field owners
3. High ranking officers
4. Noble families
5. Slave dealers
6. Bankers/ financiers
7. Chief architects & engineers
8. City politicians & council members
9. Lawyers & judges
10. Celebrated philosophers/ artists/ poets

Spire District

Upon the crown of Calyx rests the opulent Spire District, the seat of Calyx government, wealth and temporal power. The complex is composed of great palaces, towers, and barracks built out of cut stone.

Structures

1. Folly of delicate arches and tracing above hidden gardens and grottoes
2. Ring of fluted columns enclose a (1d6) tiered fountains. Statues of nudes women and children frolicking in the water.
3. A mahogany door opens out of an ivy covered wall into a long banquet hall. 2 in 6 chance of a great feast taking place.
4. Double white doors with ornate tracery open to a grand ballroom. Balconies above the open floor are festooned with bouquets and imperial banners. Prince Mitra throws a ball almost every evening, and the royal servants scramble with the preparations during the day. Sometimes the Calyx Quartet can be heard practicing their waltzes during the day.
5. Shrines to a goddess of beauty/ wealth/ pleasure
6. Bathouses carved into the ground. Natural hot springs feed luxurious tiled basins. Nude nobility cavorting.
   
7. Gallery of plundered artifacts, and relics from a previous age.
8. Menagerie. Exotic animals and monsters in golden cages. Many are intelligent and will bargain for release.
   
9. Hedge maze, filled with marble statues. The nobilty often escape here to conduct private business both carnal and criminal. 
10. Vast ornamental garden. Manicured walkways, grottoes, and carp pools. Exotic plants, flowers, and fruit laden trees. Peacock roosts.
    

WEIRD CYBERPUNK PLOT NODE GENERATOR

This generator is designed for use with Chromatic Shadows, my in-progress weird cyberpunk RPG. 

In Chromatic Shadows, the missions you run your for the megacorps don't happen in a vacuum. Other events are taking place in the weird-haunted Sprawl that impact you and the people you know. As your character reaches out to their contacts and engage with various NPCs they become embroiled in the numerous plots and intrigues running behind the scenes. This generator provides the tools to quickly create those plots, and to draw the lines of connection between them.

PLOT NODES

• Determine 2-3 starting Plot Nodes. These are large-scale adventure hooks. They don’t need to be introduced all at once. They exist as areas of focal interest, optional exploration, additional layer of texture/ detail/ context to your campaign. They say “hey there's something going on over here, come take a look if you want!”.

• Connect a character contact to each of these nodes, in order to create a "personal connection". When the contact is activated, reveal bits of the “sub-plot” when relevant. Give glimpses and teases of events happening behind the scenes to draw player interest.

• Create continuity & connect things together. As the story is being built sandbox style, tie new discoveries, & NPCs back to these nodes as makes sense. 

• As old nodes are being dealt with, and as the characters organically pursue their own agendas, introduce new nodes and story hooks. Find ways that large nodes connect to each other and the influence of one relates or comes into conflict with another. 

 

PLOT NODE DETAILS TABLES

• Plot Nodes contain various associated details that can be chosen or randomly determined. The following tables can used whenever a relevant detail comes into play.
  

Megacorps

1. SinCom
2. CortX
3. Biodyne
4. Aerotec
5. Citadel
6. Reroll

Sprawl Zones

1. Metroplex
2. Fortress Estates
3. CorpSec
4. The Barrens
5. The Slags
6. Arcologies

Shadow Facility

1.  R&D lab/ black site/ bunker
   
2. Concealing alien structure/ vessel/ energy source
   
3. Containment unit/ prison
   
4.  Mystical/ cult based (temple, ritual chamber, ceremonial space)
   
5.  Portal (remote location, extra-dimension)
6. Matrix based/ VR construct
   

Factions

1. Criminal Cartel/ Gangs
   
2. Hand of Moloch
3. Sentinel
4. Matrix Daemons
5. Order of Typhon
6. Neotribes

Neotribe

1. Ferals
2. Leather Angels
3. Nils
4. Paladins
5. Satans
6. Borgs
7. Proteans
8. Clowns
9. Iron Men
10. Draculas
    

Large scale city events

1. Political upheaval, protests/ riots
2. Plague, drug epidemic
3. Terrorism, law enforcement/ surveillance lock down
4. Urban renewal projects
5. Crime wave, looting, fires/ arson,
6. Disaster (flood, hurricane, displaced populations, resource scarcity)

Outside Entity

1. Bio-engineered hybrid/ chimera
2. Extra-dimensional horror
3. Animal uplift
   
4. Matrix daemon
5. Alien entity
6. Spirit/ ghost/ poltergeist

Black Market Assets

1. Cyberware
2. Drugs, stims
3. Weapons
4. Drones/ machines, vehicles
5. Matrix/ DNI tech, software
6. Biotech, organ legging

Esoteric Assets

1. Hypertech machinery
   
2. Weapons
3. Inter-dimensional portals
4. Psychic assets (remote viewing, telepathy, telekinesis, precognition, dream-tech, emotion/ compulsion)
5. Alien artifacts
6. Biological assets

Reality Warping Effects

1. Physical forces (fire, electricity, nuclear, temperature, gravity, magnetism, time)
2. Space (connections between places/ locations, inside vs outside space)
3. Perception (mind, senses, illusion, compulsions, emotion)
4. Physical matter (natural and artificial substance)
5. Life (human biology, animals & plant life)
6. Void (extra dimensions, alien life forms, spirit)

PLOT NODE GENERATOR TABLES

• Roll 1d6 to determine node type, and then roll 1d6 twice more to determine the features of that node category. Consult the above "node-details" tables to determine other attributes/ textures as necessary.
  

1. FALLOUT FROM RECENT CYBERRUN UPON A ZONE

• Roll for Sprawl zone effected & Megacorp targeted
  

Area Effected:

1. Neighborhood block
2. Residential pods/ apartments
3. Industrial area
4. Physical infrastructure (energy/ transportation/ water/ sewer)
5. Digital infrastructure: AR Nodes, Matrix hosts, VR construct server farms
6. business/ commercial/ public services

Actions:

1. Cover Ups/ disappearances/ mind-wipes/
2. Damaged property, explosions, fires,
3. Injured people, death, disease
4. Eye witnesses, stories, rumors
5. Occult asset somehow got loose, being actively searched for
6.  Heightened law enforcement & media attention
   

2. UNCANNY INFLUENCE UPON A SITE

•  Roll to determine the Sprawl zone of site.
  

Type of influence:

1. Esoteric Creature (cryptid, hybrid chimera, bio-experiment, extradimensional entity, matrix daemon, spirit/ ghost)
2. reality warping effect (psychic phenomenon, space-time distortion,
3. Extra dimensional breach/ dimensional portal (site connected to another location or dimension)
4. Haunting, possessions,
5. Physical or psychological effects (deformity, disease, transformation, odd behavior)

How is influence being delivered:

1. Abandoned shadow war facility (R&D lab, production facility)
2. Occult asset in play (misplaced and lost, being kept somewhere secretly by an agency, being used leveraged somehow for gain, being used but unwittingly)
3. Hidden lair/ hive/ tunnel/ dungeon
   
4. Ley line, vortex/ focal point of occult energy
5. Effects anchored to/ influenced by a person or an object
6. Through a digital medium/ node/ matrix

 

3. MAJOR FACTION ACTIVITY WITHIN A ZONE

• Roll to determine Sprawl zone and Factions involved
  

What type of activity?

1. Seeking asset (esoteric, black market)
2. Consolidating strength
3. Dramatic falloff of influence/ power vacuum
4. Trying to gain foothold in contested area
5. Moving in on a “tainted” zone,
6. Seeking information

Secondary characteristic

1. Uncanny influence (Y/N?)
2. Underground/ black market assets (drugs, weapons, cyberware, stims, electronics)
3. Social asset in play (important group of people involved/ contested, gang, neotribe, neighborhood)
4. Physical asset in play (residential building/ commercial/ industrial, infrastructure, natural feature)
5. Digital asset in play (AR node/ Matrix host/ VR construct server farm/ telecom station/ broadcast towers)
6. Economic asset in play (business, high profile club, bank, real estate/ property)
   

 

4. EXTRA FACTIONAL CONFLICT

• Megacorps (roll) and/ or factions (roll) in conflict with a large scale Sprawl event (roll zone)

Large-scale Sprawl event

1. Politics, Protests,
2. Terrorism, riots, looting fires/ arson,
3. Renewal, infrastructure projects
4. Rampant crime, drug epidemic,
5. Disaster (flood, hurricane), plague,
6. Immigrant wave, displaced populations

Type of Conflict

1. Over physical territory
2. Over a contested asset (esoteric or otherwise)
3. Competing sphere of influence (economic/ PR/ political)
4. Corp responsible/ implicated in negative situation
5. Caught in the crossfire through no fault of their own, but now involved
6. Trying to actively help situation, but causing unintended consequences/ complications/ harm

 

5. SHADOW WAR SHAKE UP

• Major events are shaking up the Shadow War, the megacorps & the cyberrunning community (roll for which corp is being affected)

1. Merger. Megacorp absorbs another, becoming more powerful and expanding their sphere of influence.
2. Economic downturn, Bankruptcy, financial vulnerability
3. New corp enters war
4. Legal exposure, high profile lawsuit, wide scale crime comes to light
5. Alliance between rivals
6. Event causes major loss of key public infrastructure/ asset (fire, sabotage, malfunction, quake)

How is cyberrunning community affected

1. Contracts drying up/ runs are less lucrative/ more competition between runners. Runner bars becoming hostile.
2. Sudden surge of contracts. Contracts paying more. More cash flowing. Scene is blowing up. Runners getting more access to drugs, cyberware & stims. Drug and cyber-addiction increasing.
3. Anonymous identity of contracts slipping. Mission details reveal too much in light of recent events. Runners gain knowledge of corporate sponsor or target. Corporate retaliation possible.
4. Black-market drying up. Stims/ drugs/ cyberware becoming scarce. Withdrawal from scene. Fewer runners coming around looking for contracts.
5. Vigilance. Paranoid. Proxies extra cautious. Kicking crews off contracts for slightest perceived unreliability. Corporate investigation of the slightest perceived indiscretion
6. Runner crews disappearing. Individual runners dropping off the map. No clear knowledge of who or what is going on. Crews are laying low until answers can be found.

 

6. INTER-FACTIONAL CONFLICT

1. Shake up/ redistribution of power within a single faction (leadership, resources, infrastructure, territory,)
2. Rivalry between two closely related factions (rival neotribes/ cultists/ criminal/ daemon)
3. Triangulation: Alliance between disparate factions, against a third faction (common enemy)
4. Faction losing power in zone, being killed, mass defection of members, loss of resources, or otherwise diminished influence (external event/ power vacuum or rival faction/ being supplanted)
5. Massive power consolidation within zone. (due to esoteric asset, seized physical/ digital infrastructure, political alliance with another faction, community, government)
6. Transformation of faction into something else. Identity shift from one state to another. Fashion is behaving different, caging its core beliefs, and actions

Secondary Interest

1. Piece of unique architecture, neighborhood building pivotal
2. Members of one (or more) the factions are being influenced by an uncanny/ supernatural.force (creature, asset, effect)
3. A demagogue/ cult of personality like figure has emerged, and his influence is part of these events
4. Radical new belief system is influencing things (restatement of old beliefs or a new system)
5. Disillusionment within the ranks is influencing things
6. External event is influencing things (sudden wealth/ healthcare/ economic stability or its opposite disease, drug addiction, poverty. Also environmental factors such as weather, climate, environmental livability, law enforcement) 

 

CHARACTER CONTACT INVOLVEMENT

1. Being targeted/ pursued by X for something they (did, know, have, etc)
2. In need of something desperately (advance position/ upward mobility, revenge, money, information, drugs, cyberware, medicine, information) . Pressuring you to do something risky.
3. Acting erratic/ strange behavior. Not in control of own actions. (possessed by outside influence, being drugged, behavior induced through digital interface, hypnotized, being pressured/ leveraged/ extorted).
4. Victim of an attack (themselves or someone they know). (cult, ritualistic, cyberware theft, scarrifiation, kidnapping, etc) may require medical assistance, retribution. (The attacker was under some kind of outside influence. What was it? Connections to the occult world?) Could also be an attack against an asset (theft/ arson/ extortion)
5. Involved in a complicated relationship (business, romantic, needs help getting out). Third party might be willing to bargain, but the price is something very risky to achieve.
6. Experiencing meteoric success (business, relationship, wealth, personal beauty, status). Comes at a personal cost (health, business relationship, esoteric asset, drug, occult involvement ) or at the cost of another (extortion, theft, harm)