A friend of mine called Tim asked if I had considered a random generator to create maps for the mines and for solo-play. One quick flash of inspiration later and I’d knocked up a one page generator – which you can now find in the Rules Downloads.

However, I had not tested it as I did not have the time. So this morning, with a few minutes to spare I used it to create a small map for a section of the mines – voila!

I took some graph paper, a pencil, a couple of pens and 2d6. The generator produced all the detail you see above in about five minutes. Not bad eh?

The thing to understand when you use random tables like this is that it cannot cover everything. Thus you have to apply a little of your own creativity, e.g.:

I chose which direction the tunnels came out of the caverns (erroneously called ‘chambers’ on the map), and how many.

I added cart rails to a couple of tunnels to connect caverns that had randomly generated cart rails.

I made a little key for the symbols I invented.

If I rolled one cavern straight after another I put a small connecting tunnel between them (i.e. from cavern 2 to cavern 3).

Then I ran the Encounter table across each cavern, and produced what you see above.

Cavern 1: 3 Brigands scavenging for equipment and maybe Orichalcum. They probably don’t want a fight if outnumbered. You can choose to roll Hostility on that or make your own mind up.

Cavern 2: Nothing.

Cavern 3: A Slith. These have spells so I rolled three times on the Spell table in Lamplight 3 – Foul Sorcery & Thaumaturgy. I got Counter-magic twice so I re-rolled the second one.

Cavern 4: A Man’o’War – could be a tough fight for a new party, so I ignored the die roll saying there should be 3 of them, and just put 1 in there.

Cavern 5: 2 lost miners, who probably engineered the roof fall to keep the Man’o’War at bay.

I think that this map would probably cover an evening’s play. Then it’s breaking through the roof-fall, saving the miners and into the caverns beyond!

Note: If there does not seem to be enough loot, just hide some for the players to search for.

So, there you go. Try it out and if you have a fun session please tell me about it, or send a like to your blog or wherever you write it up.