A Troika depth crawl? Deeper!
Last night’s Mothership game was a blast! Dave (Magnum Galaxy Games) ran us through his latest brainchild, a spooky depth crawl through an infectiously perfect paradise planet. My impression was Annihilation meets Old School Trek as told by Another Bug Hunt; pretty cool! Our squad was two Teamsters, a Scientist, a Convict, and an Acolyte — pretty motley, compared to the core-book-only teams we’ve had in the past.
The depth crawl aspect really caught my attention, especially since Gabriel and I had just been chatting earlier that day about his experiences running Stygian Library and Gardens of Ynn for his partner. My previous exposure to the concept mostly comes from Pariah‘s Wailing Dunes, though honestly my six-session campaign barely scraped the outmost limits of that content.
It’s a lot of fun! I wanted to put together a wee Troika depth crawl. I want every rathole, crack in the wall, and pit to lead into the infinite goblin labyrinth; hopefully, this tool set helps fill in those blank spaces.
Set Up
When characters enter the Labyrinth, they roll a d6 on the tables below to generate the Structure of the Labyrinth, a local Feature, and an Event taking place there.
Track Depth. It begins at 0. Everytime the characters move deeper into the Labyrinth, increase Depth by 1. If they are trying to move towards the exit, reduce Depth by 1. Roll a d6 on each table every time the characters move, adding the Depth to each roll. If Depth would be -1, the characters have escaped.
Using rope, chalk, or other clever means, players may find their way back to certain previously marked locations.
Structure
- Lightless cavern
- Dark tube
- Barbed steel shaft (test luck or damage as knife)
- Looping burrow
- Featureless hallway
- Wet tunnel
- Stone cobbled walls
- Thick garden hedges
- Expansive garden
- Ornate pavilion
- Crumbling fortification
- Bog of Eternal Stench
- Mirrored hallways
- Ballroom of the Goblin King
- Antigravity Staircase Room
- (or Higher) Goblin City
Features
- Goblin Customs (2d6 Goblins)
- Pit trap (2-in-6 chance of Boggart)
- Collapsing ceiling
- Flooding
- Persistent leak
- Talking walls
- Sputtering mud-choked fountain
- Jousting Grounds (3-in-6 chance of 2 Heavily Armoured Goblins)
- Riddle door
- Large floorless sections, howling void
- Shifting walls
- Midden
- Dolm lair
- Pile of toys and treasure (d6x100p value)
- Armoury (all weapons and armour)
- Crushing Wall trap
- Ancient Dwarven artwork
- Goblin nursery (often contains captives)
Events
- Floor becomes a looping slide (increase Depth by d6+3)
- d6 Goblin emigrants seek the human world
- 2d6 Gremlins, looking to settle old scores with the Goblins
- Bladed contraption scours halls
- Tricksy Goblin offers to take you to Goblin City for d66p. Always takes you in the opposite direction it thinks you want to go. Tricksy!
- Parade of d6 Heavily Armoured Goblin knights
- d6 Goblins being mean to a Donestre
- d6 Goblins attempt to reeducate a Thinking Engine
- d6 Goblins seek sentimental junk and sappy speeches
- 2d6 Goblins throwing rocks from on high
- 2d6 Goblins having a party
- 2d6 Goblins play with a Fruit of Eternal Dreams
- 2d6 Goblins are philosophizing. They won’t let you go without giving them your worst idea.
- A ball of 3d6 Goblins, glamoured to look beautiful and elfin
- A lone Drock seeks a place for his abominable art
- 3d6 Moderately Armoured Goblin pikemen hold the line
- 5d6 Goblins
- The Goblin King!
Keep reading! Check out these Troika monsters, spells, and items — or go system agnostic with these Trolls! Like what you see? It only exists because of the support of our fans. Join the team and pick up a module before you go; may I recommend Drawn from the Margins?