There comes a time in the life of every DM when he or
she wants to sit down and do a level in their castle and they have used
all their ideas up. I am not saying that if the normal D&D judge doesn’t
really try he or she can’t pull a good encounter room out of their head,
but sometimes the ideas for an entire level just will not come. I do not
think there is a good DM that merely wants to fill his or
her levels with treasures guarded by monster type rooms.

The solution to the problem above is fairly simple; fill sections or
entire levels with “areas of history”. While I know the normal DM can
take the idea from there I would like to suggest some possible areas to
develop.

Ancient Egypt: This level would have altars dedicated to the Gods
Set, Ra, Thoth, Horus, Anhur, and last but not least “Ptah”. The
monster types in this area would be heavy on the mummy, giant snake,
giant beetle, master thief, sphinx, giant cat type monsters. I would also
suggest that if you make many such “area” levels you make up wandering
monster type charts that fit the levels the area deals with; an example
for the Egyptian level could be:

-    Egyptian Level

Monster	Die Roll
1-3 Minions of Set	1-2
EHP of Set and 5 men at arms	3-4
2 Mummies	5-7
11th level grave robber thief	8
Sphinx	9
1-4 giant snakes	10-13
Paladin of Horus	14
Evil hero and 5 men-at-arms	15
2 giant beetles	16-19
Evil Lama of Set and 10 men-at-arms	20

The traps for this area would have to be many and deadly and include
crushing ceiling stones in series of 3 and 4 in any given 60 feet of
passage, hinged pit traps that drop for 90 feet onto long steel spikes (no
lead spikes, folks, they might give the player lead poisoning), and the
permanent shifting walls should come by the dozens. The treasures for
these areas should have less gold than gems and jewelry and be in coffers
and other containers with poison needle type traps. Last but not
least, the Egyptians were famous for two special concepts: the placing
of their kings in rich tombs and their putting curses on everything; keep
that in mind.

Ancient India: The Gods of this level would have richly carved altars;
some of the better known Gods include: Shiva, Brahama, Kali,
and Devi. The monsters would include things like the demons called
Rakshasas and Yakshas, giant magical snakes called Nagas, intelligent
ogres that can polymorph, elves called Ribhus that will not be as normal
elves in that they are servants of the Gods, and finally wind spirits
called Maruts. India of ages past is famous for their great sages, perfect
for an encounter room where the treasure is knowledge instead of gold.
India is also famous for its jungles that hide hidden cities with piles of
treasure guarded by nothing more than a 200 feet long intelligent snake
(whew).

The Far East: Altars to the Gods like Huan-Ti, Wen Chung, Lu
Yueh, and Kuan Yin all must be carved in jade-like substances and
filled with traps and great treasures. The monsters of the Far East must
include the Imperial Dragon, the Shen Shu spirits, and fairies of the
mountain type. The Far East has always been known for its strange
magic and even stranger treasure containers (puzzle type boxes). The
East has also been known for the richness of its treasure hordes.

The Future or Machine Age: While some steady readers might
think that I harp on this topic too much, the first time I came in contact
with a level of this type was in the “mighty” castle of Greyhawk; run
by Gary Gygax and Rob Kuntz. Imagine conveyor belts that force players
to travel in one direction or another, a cellophane machine that
wraps you up no matter how big or small you are and puts you in a
holding area for as long as it takes to rip yourself out, how about a die
press that shapes anything in its path into a bottle top (Boy, can that
hurt!), or a row of blades that cut in a pattern on the belt with a 25%
chance that any given blade will cut you? Try a slot machine that takes
only large sums of gold and with the flip of the handle takes a random
magic item from the party, and how about a lever that turns on something
way off in another part of the level (like a robot or level clean up
machine) that you can’t know about until you travel to that part of the
level? The treasures of this level could easily be more fun than the level:
imagine bottle tops made out of mithril on wine bottles; how about
guns and pistols that work; a set of chain mail made out of a super hard
and light alloy that acts like plus 5 armor and shows no magical traits;
how about a huge pile of gold dust in a large plastic bubble that isn’t
small enough to get out the door and can’t be cut by anything less than
a plus 5 sword?
 

Other areas of study for levels could include: the Viking Era,
Greek and Roman epochs, an African setting, or Aztec level. If any of
you are hard up for listings of Gods I might hesitate to suggest you get
a copy of Gods, Demi-Gods, & Heroes. Keep in mind that these areas
can be anything, their only function is to help the DM give his or her
players something much more than a boring adventure. May the ever
growing tide of magical refutation not drown out these small words.