I’ve written about Flux Spaces before; Nick LS Whelan’s idea of capturing somewhat abstract spaces, which (in my opinion) really capture a sense of scale that a lot of dungeons fail to do. I’ve also written about combining various types of dungeons in one construct.
Nick’s example of the older draft of his Flux Space idea (which I feel still stands on its own!), the Cozy Catacombs, captured my imagination today.
This particular interpretation is fairly minimal. It had me wondering – what if we expand upon it?
The fluff: Miners recently dug a little bit too deep and unearthed an entrance to a subterranean ancient complex. All manner of evil has been spilling out. Local rumors also tell stories of the local cave network nearby where fungi has taken irregular and ominous forms.
I imagine this as follows:
- Entrance A & B are locations found within the world, and provide access to…
- CAVES. Flux Space. Errant tunnels, choking fungi.
- MINES. Flux Space. Maze of corridors, shafts, skeletons.
Navigating a Flux Space takes a certain number of Encounter Rolls. For this example, let’s say it takes 3. After 3 rolls, the party can choose to reach any previously discovered connecting elements, or they discover a new one, if they wish. The one they discover is determined by d6; if none are discovered, simply assign the available exits 1-2, 3-4, 5-6. The second time they do this, it’s a 1-3/4-6 distribution. I’d say that the party has a general sense of how thoroughly they’ve explored a Flux Space; they’ll know when they’ve discovered all exits.
Each Flux Space would have its own encounter table – which the party might ‘exhaust’ during their time in the Flux, with entries being crossed out after they’ve been cleared.
The CAVES connect to 3 mapped locations;
- Area 4 is a small sub-cave, where we ‘zoom in’ on an actual map for proper exploration, with secrets to discover and treasure to be found.
- The Connector between Caves & Halls provides a sense of sensible shift; the party discovers an entrance into the Halls themselves.
- The Connector between Caves & Mines involves verticality; the caves being at the bottom of a natural chasm.
The HALLS, then, contain the biggest dangers & treasure, the biggest risk and reward. The Flux Space here is a maze of corridors and chambers, and Area 3, for instance, is a notable section with more distinct chambers and treasure.
But Wait, There’s More
An alternate take on this idea:
Here, each Flux Space borders multiple locations in a more structured manner, with Locations 4 and 5 being the ‘deep’ parts.
We can flavor each location by looking at the bordering Flux Spaces:
If, for instance, Flux A is “Dwarven Tunnels” and Flux B is “Flooded Caves”, Location 1 would consist of Dwarven Tunnels opening into Flooded Caves. Okay, that sounds really obvious, when I say it like that – I just mean that, it can help provide some guidelines to flesh out areas.