4th Edition Dungeon Delve Solo Rules

Unless otherwise noted, the original 4th Edition ruleset is used. The following
modifications
are made:
Rounds and Initiative:
The entire delve is played in rounds like a boardgame, even if no monsters are o
n
the map. A round has the following segments or phases:
1. Hero Phase
2. Monster Phase (happens only if monsters are present)
3. Encounter Phase
4. Resting and Recovery Phase (happens only if no monsters are present)
During the Hero Phase, every player hero takes a turn in initiative order as
described in the standard rules. Initiative is not rolled. Instead a static init
iative is
used by taking 10 on the initiative check to speed up play and to minimize
bookkeeping. Also note, that during the Hero Phase only the heroes act (even if
a
monster has a higher static initiative). Initiative is only used to determine th
e acting
order during the phase but the Hero Phase always takes place before the Monster
Phase.
During the Monster Phase, all revealed hostile creatures and monsters act in the
order of their static initiative and take a normal turn. If no monsters are on t
he map,
the Monster Phase is skipped.
During the Encounter Phase you check for random encounters and wandering
monsters (see Encounters and Wandering Monsters below).
During the Resting and Recovery Phase you can choose to take a short rest or an
extended rest (see below). This phase happens only if no monsters or hostile
creatures are on the map, otherwise it is skipped.
Wandering Monsters and Random Encounters:
Once each round, during the Encounter Phase, you make a roll to see if a
wandering monster appears. There is a 10% chance that a wandering monster
appears (roll of 1 on 1d10 or 1-2 on 1d20). If a wandering monster appears,
generate a wandering monster randomly (using a table or stat card deck etc.) and
place it between 6 and 12 squares away from the nearest player hero (depending
on the available map space) appearing from around a corner or in a doorway etc.
Whenever you enter a new chamber or room for the first time, you generate a
random encounter during the Encounter Phase (using a random encounter table or
the random encounter rules from the DMG or the 3.5 edition Miniatures Handbook,

Chapter on Random Dungeons, see the Tips section below for a random encounter
generation method) and place the encounter within the chamber. Note that you
generate the encounter not until the encounter phase in the round. So if you are
playing with three heroes and the first hero enters a new chamber you still get
to
activate the other two heroes during the Hero Phase and the remaining monsters
which might still be on the map during the Monster Phase BEFORE the new
encounter is generated during the Encounter Phase. This is to keep things in an
organized round structure that makes it easier to keep track of everything while
playing solo.
The difference between a wandering monster and a random encounter is that a
wandering monster is only one monster while an encounter might be a group of
monsters depending on the player's party and level. Also, a wandering monster ca
n
appear every round and is not restricted to rooms or new areas while a random
encounter is generated only if a new unexplored room is entered. The purpose of
wandering monsters is to create time pressure and to account for things that mak
e
noise and take time, like picking locks and disarming traps etc.
Short and Extended Rests:
You can only take a Short Rest or an Extended Rest during the Resting and
Recovery Phase of the round, which happens ONLY if no monsters are present on
the map. So if you cleared a room and decide to stay and rest you still have to
see
if a wandering monster appears during the Encounter Phase before the Resting and
Recovery Phase.
If you take a short rest, you gain the benefits as described in the standard rul
es and
start a new round with the Hero Phase.
If you take an extended rest, however, you have to roll for a wandering monster
once every hour. So since an extended rest takes at least 6 hours (unless you ar
e
a Drow and need only 4 hours of trance) you have to roll six times and check for
a
wandering monster. Only if no wandering monster appears you rest undisturbed
and gain the benefit of an extended rest. If a wandering monster appears, place
it
according to the rules above and start a new round with the Hero Phase without t
he
benefit of an extended rest.
Doors and Chests:
The following rules apply to doors and chests. For simplicity, only the term "do
or" is
used.
Doors can be opened and closed with a minor action. Monsters can open a door

that leads to a new area only if it has been opened by a hero before.
Doors are trapped on a roll of 1-10 on 1d20.
Traps can be discovered with a successful perception check or dungeoneering
check as a minor action vs. DC 15 + Level of highest level character in party. S
o if
the highest level hero in the party is level 6 the DC would be 21 etc. Traps are
automatically discovered if the passive perception of a hero with LOS to the doo
r is
high enough, no action is needed.
Traps can be disarmed with a thievery check vs. DC 15 + highest hero level as a
standard action.
Doors are locked on a roll of 1-10 on 1d20. Locked doors can be opened with a
thievery check vs. DC 15 + highest level as a standard action.
Traps that are not discovered and disarmed are triggered if a door is opened. Tr
aps
are one-shot traps: They make one attack against one or more characters
(depending on the trap), deal damage and are useless and disabled afterwards.
In order to disarm a trap, you first have to discover it. If you fail the percep
tion
check (only one try per character) and open the door you still have to roll to s
ee if
the door was trapped and resolve the trap. If you succeed at the perception chec
k,
you can make the trap roll to see if the door is trapped BEFORE you open the doo
r
and can try to disarm the trap if necessary.
Special Chest Rules: A chest is ALWAYS locked and it is trapped on a roll of 1-1
5
on 1d20. If a chest is opened, you can generate one random treasure parcel (usin
g
the Essentials Dungeon Master's Book or Rules Compendium treasure table) for
EVERY hero in the party. So if you have three heroes you generate three treasure
s
to form the chest treasure hoard.
To determine if a new room or chamber contains a chest, roll 1d10 during the
Encounter Phase when you generate the encounter for the room. On a roll of 10
the room contains a chest.
Treasure:
Whenever you defeat an encounter generate a random treasure using the Dungeon
Master's Book or a custom treasure table.
Do not generate a treasure if the room where the encounter was discovered
contains a treasure chest.

Tips and Variations:

These rules assume the use of a "classic" dungeon map, like the Twisting Halls
from the new 4th Edition red box starter or similar maps. However, they can also
be
used to play on less dungeonlike or "doorless" maps like the wonderful poster ma
ps
from the D&D Minis line or by using the Dungeon Tiles from Castle Ravenloft and
Wrath of Ashardalon with some minor changes.
Poster Maps: Since you don't have clear rooms and defined areas use the
following method for determining encounters: Place as many encounter tokens on
the map as you want encounters to happen. If a hero (not monster) is adjacent to
an encounter token during the Encounter Phase you trigger an encounter. Remove
the token from the map, generate an encounter and place the encounter 12 squares
away from the nearest player hero. All other rules remain unchanged.
Ravenloft and Ashardalon Tiles: Instead of doors and encounter tokens you have
unexplored edges. If a player hero is adjacent to an unexplored edge an encounte
r
is triggered. Generate the encounter and then draw one tile per 2 monsters in th
e
encounter (so three monsters would be two tiles etc.) and place the tiles at the
unexplored edges as per standard rules. The first tile at the edge where the her
o is
standing, the other tiles at the edges of the newly placed tile. If a wandering
monster appears, draw a dungeon tile and place it at the nearest unexplored edge
from a hero and place the wandering monster on the tile. This method works well
if
you play with a different objective than "find tile X which is between tile 9-12
in the
stack". If you play with that objective however, only draw the first tile in a r
andom
encounter from the top of the stack and the other tiles from the bottom of the s
tack.
Also, if a wandering monster appears, draw the wandering monster tile from the
bottom of the stack. All other rules remain unchanged.
You should define an objective for your delve, like defeating a special boss vil
lain or
recovering an artifact etc. to make things interesting. Also, you should stick t
o a
dungeon theme when tailoring encounter tables and add wandering monsters for
variation.
Finally you can use 1" gridded flipchart paper and markers and use the random
dungeon rules from the DMG to create a random dungeon on the fly while you are
exploring.
Random Encounters: I use the following method for creating random encounters,
which is not too much work and is pretty balanced: I create a table with 10 mons
ter
entries, the monsters are fitting a certain theme. A monster can be of up to two

levels higher than the lowest level PC. If the entry is a minion, always 4 minio
ns
appear. If an encounter appears, I roll on the table once for every PC. So if yo
u
have two heroes you roll two times on the table and end up with 8 minions or 4
minions and 1 standard monster or 2 standard monsters which are of comparable
level to the Heroes. An encounter table for a party consisting of two heroes wit
h
different levels (level 2 and level 4) would feature monsters of Level 1-4 (high
est
monster level = lowest hero level 2 + 2) and the DC for finding and disabling tr
aps
and picking locks would be 19 (15 + highest hero level 4).
Elite and Solo Monsters don't appear in random encounter tables and are reserved
for "scripted" boss battles. A lonely hero of level 1 would only roll once on th
e
encounter table which features monsters or minions of level 1-3 and his DC for
traps and doors would be 16. Lower level monsters should be more common than
higher level monsters. An encounter table for a party of two heroes of an equal
level of 3 would feature monsters from level 1-5 and might look like this:
01: 4 minions level 2
02: 4 minions level 3
03: 4 minions level 3
04: 4 minions level 3
05: 4 minions level 4
06: 4 minions level 5
07: standard monster level 1
08: standard monster level 2
09: standard monster level 3
10: standard monster level 4
Remember you roll once per hero, so if you would roll a 9 and a 6 you would have
an encounter consisting of a standard level 3 monster and four level 5 minions
(which are the same as one level 5 monster XP wise). Since two level 3 monsters
would be a standard encounter and two level 5 monsters would be a hard
encounter for two Heroes of level 3, this encounter is a challenging encounter
between standard and hard. Using this method you don't have to calculate to much
in advance and still get balanced encounters with a decent XP value.