In this newsletter | Cyclic Dungeon Design in Avenge the White Mare What Dark Knocking Comes in the Still of the Night? |
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Night Noon Games Cyclic Dungeon Design in Avenge the White Mare | If you’re anything like me, you can come up with a great idea for a dungeon, but you just don’t really know where to start writing it. One tool I think is really great for just this is Sersa Victory’s Cyclic Dungeon Generation system. I used this methodology to build the scaffolding of my new Shadowdark adventure Avenge the White Mare (which is accepting late pledges over on Kickstarter!), and today I’m going to walk you through the process with the hope you’ll give it a go for yourself!
As the name implies, Cyclic Dungeon Generation makes use of cycles to design a given adventure. These circular loops within a dungeon are represented with simple flowcharts and contain four distinct icons: a start, a goal, three-to-four arcs that represent paths through the dungeon, and two insertion point diamonds where additional sub-cycles can be added.
There are 12 types of cycles, the most simple of which is “two alternative paths:” |  | You can see there are two ways for a party to reach their goal, with an insertion point for potential sub-cycles on each path to the goal. It’s important to remember that, as flowcharts, these cycles are abstract representations of an adventure, so one point on it could represent one room or many.
Within Sersa’s wonderful guidelines, you’ll find roll tables to generate these cycles for an entire adventure.
[If you don’t want spoilers for Avenge the White Mare, stop here and just check out Sersa’s documentation on this design method!]
The overarching cycle I rolled to represent the entire dungeon is called a “gambit:” |
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This cycle gives the adventuring party a short path to their goal with an optional reward after the goal, should they want to pursue it.
The start of this cycle is just the beginning of the adventure, and the goal is the sárkány dragon’s chamber. The reward, should players choose to brave the danger, is a treasure trove and an epic magical item called “Stonecrumblers Gauntlet’s.” (These can help the players defeat the dragon, making traversing the danger even more enticing!) The danger itself is the dragon’s chambers, likely with the dragon within it. You can see two diamonds marking the insertion points for sub-cycles as well.
The first sub-cycle is a “simple lock-and-key:” |  | This cycle presents the party with a short path to the goal, which they find is locked. Finding the key requires further exploration into the dungeon. There are two types of locks though: hard, which actually requires the key, and soft, which players may be able to circumvent with clever play or at a significant cost. Since I want to encourage clever gameplay in my adventures, I went with a soft lock knowing someone might still outsmart my locked goal.
The start of this cycle is the first insertion point of the overarching cycle. The goal is the sárkány dragon itself, the lock is magical copper tendrils which hold the chamber doors shut, and the key is the magical Copper Orb that hovers above the castle’s peak. Since this is a soft lock, other magic items can repel the copper tendrils, but less effectively.
I did not want to include more sub-cycles within this sub-cycle because I was designing a one-shot, and I didn’t see a need to go too far down that rabbit hole!
For the second sub-cycle, which was placed at the bottom of the overarching dungeon cycle and which would lead to the lucrative reward, I rolled “dangerous route:” |  | This gives players the option to take a very short route to the goal, but only if they are willing to head through something dangerous. Otherwise, they can take a longer route.
The start for this cycle begins at the second insertion point in the overarching dungeon cycle. Players must work past the danger that is the sárkány dragon. This will lead them into the basement level of the castle where they are presented with a floor that drops away into simmering molten copper. Above the liquid metal is a lattice of copper cords. The molten metal + difficult lattice represents the danger needed to reach the goal of the gauntlets.
There is a less-risky way to get to the gauntlets, but it requires more exploring and taking other risks as well. Again, there were no additional sub-cycles added here.
When you put these all together, you get an overarching cycle diagram that looks like this: |  | Clockwise from the left, you can see the starting point of the gambit-cycle dungeon at 9 o’clock, followed by the simple lock-and-key sub-cycle at 12 o’clock, which leads to the overarching dungeon goal at 3 o’clock, and finally the dangerous route sub-cycle at 6 o’clock.
Of course, the dungeon isn’t complete at this stage. I still needed to figure out what all the rooms would be along with all the monsters, hazards, NPCs, treasures, and other D&D nonsense you’d expect to find in a dungeon. However, the cyclic dungeon generation system gave me a great outline in which to build off of. I’m excited to use it again soon, and I think you should give it a try, too!
And of course, go check out Avenge the White Mare over on Kickstarter! |  | PS. If you are subscribed to the Analog Union Newsletter, I’ll send you a free Analog Union sticker if you back at a physical tier! |
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| | Ham & Egg Publishing What Dark Knocking Comes in the Still of the Night? | The heroes are away. The sky is falling. And in the ruined streets of Rivenedge, four untested trainees find a black cat with a message scratched into her collar. Follow her into the city of Ool, where the harvest festival never ends, the mayor never dies, and you learn what it costs to trust a stranger who cannot tell you her name. |  | What Dark Knocking Comes in the Still of the Night? A thrilling fantasy adventure from Ham & Egg Publishing that offers you two great ways to play. A 321RPG and 5E version of the module.
What Dark Knocking Comes in the Still of the Night? A new three-episode 321RPG flip-book adventure series for 1 Game Runner and 2-4 players. Each book includes the full adventure for the brand new 321RPG Fantasy ruleset and flips over to a complete 5E conversion on the other side. Printed in classic style, 8.5 x 11 B&W with a color cover.
You get 3 books and 2 systems. 1 epic adventure. 0 excuses not to play. Written by Geo Collazo and John McGuire, with cover and interior art by Zack Giallongo. More artists and surprises to be announced! |
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The campaign also includes two brand new resin minis, Russ and Otus, the adventure’s villains, and the premiere of our new Dual 20 Die!
The Dual 20 is a modern take on a 50-year-old classic, meant to bridge the gap between 321RPG and 5E with a single 20-sided die.
On Kickstarter this September from Ham & Egg Publishing. | | |
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Analog Union Join the Analog Union subreddit |  | The Analog Union subreddit has launched, and it’s starting to grow! Join us in our new community where you can tell us what you really think of all these shenanigans we’re getting up to. We listen, and we care. And I really want to see what you’re up to in your gaming world.
It’s easy to find; it’s literally r/AnalogUnion.
Get in now so you can say “I was there before it was cool.” (Spoiler alert: we’ll never be cool) | | | | |
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ShireCon North Canaan, CT – September 25th & 26th |
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ShireCon is celebrating its 8th year! Two days of role-playing and board games in the Berkshires! Come for a day and a half of OSR and modern gaming. Visit our vendors selling old and new games and enjoy the local fare in North Canaan, CT |
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Under The Dice Fest Enfield, CT – October 2nd, 3rd & 4th |
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Under The Dice Fest returns this October 2nd- 4th!
UTDFest is focused on independent tabletop gaming, with a focus on miniatures and wargames! The New England Mordheim Open returns, along with roleplaying games, game tournaments, workshops, live music, and more! You don’t want to miss it! |
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ArcaneCon Northampton, MA – October 16th & 17th |
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ArcaneCon is returning October 16th & 17th, 2026. Join us in a celebration of indie, old school, and old school-inspired RPGs, miniature games, board games, and more! ArcaneCon is Western Massachusetts’s premiere tabletop hobby convention! Game submissions are open now!!! See more information at Tabletop Events. |
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Keep on emailing us at hello@analogunion.com to let us know what you’d like to see more of/less of and to share ideas. If you enjoy the Analog Union newsletter, please tell your friends to sign up at AnalogUnion.com. Until next time! —JHM |
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