Megadungeon Rumors

I've discussed rumors before.  

A good megadungeon should have its own rumor table.  A table that changes and grows based on PC (and NPC) actions.  

The mechanic I'll be using is to allow each player one roll, plus an additional roll per Charisma stat bonus, at the start of each session beginning in Skara Brae (which should be most, if not all, of the sessions).  Whether or not the PCs share the rumors they learn with the others is on them.

Which means that I'll either need to prep things ahead of time using note cards, or do lots of writing as we go.  The note cards seem the simplest method, while providing a useful tactile prop.

Greg Irons, from the AD&D Coloring Book, 1979

After all, some people, even adventurers, need external motivation, and good rumors provide just that.

As the picture suggests, the Green Dragon plays host to the ne'er-do-wells that fancy themselves adventurers in Skara Brae.  Given its crowded confines and flowing alcohol, all sorts of things about the megadungeon might be overheard there, spurring the limited objectives that make a megadungeon campaign work. Marketplaces, shops, bathhouses, religious services, festivals, and the streets themselves are also potential places to overhear rumors.  Hearing the same rumor repeatedly may lend credence to it, or might merely suggest a popular or fascinating bit of gossip.

The initial rumors list will be fairly close to this:

d20	Rumors (italicized words are false)
1	Watch the water that is not water, and beware the basilisk!
2	Old Ebeneezer Hardbottle will pay well for a live meazel - if such things actually exist.
3	My own shadow tried to kill me in the pillared hall; my friends' shadows did kill them.
4	The megadungeon connects to ancient tombs that predate Skara Brae.
5	Caves connect the megadungeon to the sea.
6	The oracle in the third deep likes his ale.
7	I delved too deep and found myself in a large cavern with green glowing fungi on the walls that danced and stirred.  I could make out a city in the distance!
8	There is an unguarded entrance to the third level near the forest lake.
9	Statues down there are far more than odd art.
10	Tristan's bride-to-be Isolde was kidnapped and her dowry stolen by the bandits on the first level.
11	A flaming sword was lost to the orcs on the first level.
12	A treasure-laden funeral barge floats on a vast reservoir on the tenth level.
13	Cadmael Addewid is an elf of his word - just be careful as to what that word is!
14	The Church of Starry Wisdom keeps its treasure vault on the second level.
15	The goblins of the first level can be bargained with.
16	Ghosts of those slain in the dungeon still wander its halls.
17	Angeber Loweherzen swore to eradicate the bugbears of the second level.  He, his flaming sword, and his companions haven't been seen since.
18	Wicked and depraved cults still practice their foul worship in the darkness.
19	I followed stairs deep into the darkness of the seventh level, but ran when I realized the stairs had been chiseled from the bottom up!
20	The dungeon is alive - and it hates us!

The falsehoods have yet to be fleshed out.  Replacement rumors will be generated between sessions.  This may or may not result in nested subtables, as I number the notecards 7a, 7b, 7c, etc.  

I already have ideas for the truth behind rumors #8 and #10.   #16 means I need to reconfigure the wandering monster table(s) with a ghost subtable.  

#13 references the leader of the bandit/berserker faction on the first level, while #1 was lifted directly from the Dungeon of Dread.  I may need to reread that book.

It seems that The Church of Starry Wisdom has a toe-hold in Skara Brae; I will make time to reread some Lovecraft.   Rumors that span the levels suggest that some adventurers have made it that deep and returned to tell of it.  Those same rumors also suggest that the megadungeon is deeper than imagined.

Basically, a good rumor table builds the world while providing players/PCs with focused options of what to do next.  Similar things can be accomplished through job boards and the town council and such, but I prefer the simplicity of a few dice rolls and then off to adventure.  With gaming time at a premium, maximizing the adventuring is crucial.