Simple DND Map V3

 Simple DND Map v3 - Aidan Lazovsky

The image above shows the entirety of my simple DND map v3. The theme for this week was alien apocalypse jailbreak, and it came with an updated ruleset. To adapt to the ruleset my map contains quite a few new concepts.

Items are far more prevalent in this version of the game. For my item distribution, I put all the items in the cells in the north and south rooms. This fits with the prison theme, if there were a jailbreak, most of the contraband would be located in the rooms of  the prisoners. When a player collects an item, they roll a D20 to choose a random item. If that item has been chosen before, they are allowed to pick another item of their choice.

Checkpoints were also added in this version of the game. My checkpoints are the black paths in between the different rooms of my level. This allows players to make steady progress and complete the entire level in chunks.

My level this time was far less linear then my previous levels, which opens possibilities but also causes some problems in gameplay.

For example, the final boss in my level is quite tough. Without acquiring most of the items on the edge of the map, players are likely to get beaten without making much progress on the boss.

This was intended with the new respawn system implementation, but since I only had one playtester it got frustrating for him. Also, this map is much larger than the other maps I created. This allows some cool situations, like mass mob scenarios and plenty of rewards for exploration. But again, since I only had one playtester it was much too large. Although, my playtester suggested that this map would be super fun with a full 4 person party.

To get into details about the map, players start in the bottom left corner in separate cells. The map is split symmetrically into east and west wings, similar to prisons that exist today. There are 3 formats of buildings, cell building, cafeterias, and the headquarters. Like I stated above, items are found in cell buildings, health items are found in the cafeteras , and the boss and ending teleporter is in the headquarters. There is an item in one of the cells right above them to introduce players to them early. Then players have an immediate choice to head up or to the right. On either path, they go across the black path hitting the checkpoint.

If they go to the right, they encounter a room similar to the cells they started in, but with more items and some enemies.

On the other hand, if players decide to head up from the start, they enter the west wing cafeteria. Here players can use items they found and use strategy to eliminate mass amounts of enemies. There are also health items in front of every enemy that work similar to the broken wand (you may lose health if the food is rotten AKA d6 roll -2)

Lastly is the headquarters. Here there are 4 separate rooms containing either a mini boss or the final boss. After the defeat of the final boss, players use the teleporter in the office to escape the person, but the boss is incredibly tough. That's why there are mini bosses, when you defeat a mini boss, each player in the party does an item roll.