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.