#1: ABERRANT AUDITORIUM



Remember those big rectangular multi-purpose rooms in school with bleachers and open space and closets full of training dummies for death attacks? Where students would gather for physical exercise or pep rallies or ritual human sacrifice? You bet you do! Every Evil Overlord’s Lair worth its salt needs a multi-functional Aberrant Auditorium assembly space. Somewhere the Evil Overlord can give the New Era of Evil Speech to the followers. A stadium for bloodsports, or, uh, I mean “training area”! The Mooks can even worship their new God-King here.

NARRATIVE EXPOSITION & ENCOUNTER IDEAS:

Villain Monologue, Two Minutes Hate, Coliseum Battle Royale, Training Day.

#2: BARRACKS OF MOOKS

Unless the Evil Overlord has cranked the dial up to 11 by using only undead and construct legions, they will need a living quarters for their minions’ housing and sleeping needs: the Barracks. Mooks, the discount 1 HP henchmen hordes naturally fill this space, though they truly put the “infant” in infantry. Bosses often choose clumsy, braindead drones like these as servants because they don’t question orders, and their strength only comes through numbers, making rebellion less likely. As a disposable labor force, Mooks do the grunt work, set up the barricades during invasions, and act as general cannon fodder for the Evil Overlord and Officers.

NARRATIVE EXPOSITION & ENCOUNTER IDEAS:

Mook Mow Down, Underling Uprising, Human Wave Attack, Mis-Caste Mook.

#3: CAFETERIA & CANTEEN



Even an Evil Overlord’s Lair needs a Cafeteria, and it definitely needs a Canteen too. The former acts as a chow hall for the Mook squad goons, and the latter a means for detainees to access critical goods at extortionist market prices. An army runs on its stomach, and a dungeon runs on pure malice. These two “service” sectors typically connect with one another out of administrative convenience.



NARRATIVE EXPOSITION & ENCOUNTER IDEAS:

Grunts’ Gruel, Food Fight, Commissary Concerns.

#4: COMMUNICATIONS CENTER



Did you get the memo? I sure hope so, cuz the penalty’s death if you didn’t. The Communications Center covers propaganda pep talks for Mook mind control morale, most memos and quotas, and inter-facility coordination, for example feeding intel from the Security Center to the Unholy War Room. Nothing turns evil into a well-oiled machine quite like bureaucracy! In addition, Comms often features a Sinister Secretary to screen appointments for the busy Evil Overlord too.

NARRATIVE EXPOSITION & ENCOUNTER IDEAS:

Propaganda Montage, Unmet Quotas, Hijacked Broadcast.

#5: CRITICAL ARCHITECTURAL FLAWS



Evil Overlords have a nasty habit of sizing ventilation ducts just the right size for humanoid intruders, forgetting to secure the self-destruct button, and keeping small explosive devices near the pneumatic memo tube relay. The Big Evil Scheme never seems to include patching up those Critical Architectural Flaws for very convenient narrative reasons and no one knows why. Just a hazard of the trade I guess. Or, maybe they’re lures? Yeah, let’s go with that. M-E-T-A.

NARRATIVE EXPOSITION & ENCOUNTER IDEAS:

Schematic Foreshadowing, Exhaust Port Attack, Infiltration Duct, Fire in the Hole, It’s a Trap.

#6: DEN OF DEBAUCHERY

Evil thrives on temptation, or so they say. So an Evil Overlord needs a large Den of Debauchery fit for all manner of indecent and forbidden acts, a general Zone of Corruption to tempt and taint would-be Good-Doers, and those lackeys flirting with dangerous ideals like redemption. You’re creative, go ahead and fill in the blanks with the debaucheries of your choice!

NARRATIVE EXPOSITION & ENCOUNTER IDEAS:

Forbidden Fruit, Corrupted Crusaders, The Plot Darkens.

#7: DETENTION FACILITY



The Evil Overlord’s Detention Facility houses prisoners between torture sessions, and includes kidnappers guards. Typically, the detainees will perform forced labor of a riskier variety, but often torture sessions leave them in too ill shape to do so. A whole subsidiary security detail of watchtowers and wardens ensures their coerced compliance. Devious, disgusting, and effective.



NARRATIVE EXPOSITION & ENCOUNTER IDEAS:

Panopticon’s Perception, Prison Riot, Jailbreak.

#8: INHUMANE RESOURCES



You know those Care Committees that churches have that organize Coffee Hour, mark member milestones, and send out cards and meals? An Evil Overlord’s Lair has that too, but like, the opposite: a Cruelty Committee. Seriously. They devote just as much time and energy into Inhumane Resources like dreaming up new deathtraps and lures, or testing and maintaining old networks of boobytraps.

What, you didn’t think the Evil Overlord would let all those mindless Mooks run into randomly spinning blades beyond a periodically amusing amount of times, did you? No, they have a Cruelty Committee that sends out cards, holds luncheons, and coordinates with the Security Center all of the necessary trap awareness protocols. No joke, you’ve got your boobytrap, your alarm trap, your utility trap, your deathtrap, your decoy trap, and your fake decoy trap to worry about. And I didn’t even mention the Mimics!



NARRATIVE EXPOSITION & ENCOUNTER IDEAS:

Lost List of Traps, Curiosity Killed the Cat, Dismembership Care Package, Running the Gauntlet.

#9: INTERROGATION ROOM



Between the Security Center and the Detention Facility, every Evil Overlord Lair has an Interrogation Room. A classical dungeon, complete with torture racks, blinding lights and binding chains, and a disturbing amount of hardware. These special cells house the medieval mayhem that spawned a whole genre of dungeon delving. Not for the faint of heart.

NARRATIVE EXPOSITION & ENCOUNTER IDEAS:

The Screw Tightens, Loose Lips, Inquisitor’s Ire.

#10: MAD SCIENCE LABORATORY



No Evil Overlord Lair would seem complete without a Mad Science Laboratory. You like science, sorcery, and shortcuts? Why not combine all three: Occult Science! What’s that you say, torturous vivisection is wrong? Involuntary human experimentation is wrong? Well, two wrongs make a right with human-animal hybrids! Tired of Mooks? Make undead and constructs to take their place! Mix up some sketchy alchemical potions and poisons. Mess around with curses and Champions. Manufacture some high-liability gadgets. Extract souls, cheat death, and gain immortality…the sky’s the limit!

NARRATIVE EXPOSITION & ENCOUNTER IDEAS:

When Hybrids Attack, Frankenstein’s Monster, Lifeless Drones, Cursed Tools, Soul Farm, Degeneration Potion.