D&D 5E My Players Are Building A Dungeon (And They Don't Know It)

MortalPlague · Sep 30, 2014

Think of it as a design experiment.

I'm letting my players help me populate a dungeon, and give it a living, organic history. I've come up with the basic location; an ancient dwarf tunnel-fortress that cuts through a mountain but has been abandoned for centuries. There are occasional merchant caravans and travelers that take the road, always hastening through the old ruins. And there are rumors that the place is haunted.

Taking this in mind, I sent an e-mail to one of my players:

Email said:
You are a goblin. Through treachery, cowardice, and bullying, you have risen to be the leader of a miserable yet numerous band. One might even call it a horde, were one feeling generous.

The ancient tunnel the dwarves cut through the mountain has been still and silent for centuries. They say it's haunted. But 'they' say a lot of things, and perhaps there's good eating there. Merchants use the tunnel sometimes, and not a lot of people would think twice if they went missing. If you bring your horde food and riches, maybe you can stay in charge. You've become used to the luxuries of being the leader.

Examining the tunnel and the mountain, you discover three entrances. A small stone doorway leads into the upper galleries. In the tunnel proper, a passage leads off into the rock, presumably to the hostel (if your dwarf-speaking goblin is reading it correctly), and one leads from the tunnel down some rough stairs into a cellar.

Where will you scout? Where will you lurk?

I've had a few back and forths with my player playing the goblins. I have since given one PC control of a lone chuul, working its way up from the caverns it lay buried in. I've handed another player a pair of ogres and their cave bear pet. We also have a small family of yetis coming down from the mountains, and a kuo toa tribe coming up from below. I'm going to see how this all shakes out; the racial politics, the conflicts, how the dungeon gets explored and modified as a result. We'll see if any of the factions work out uneasy truces, or even alliances. Maybe one or two will be wiped out. Those that remain will be the dungeon denizens when I put this together and set it before my PCs.

Savage Wombat · Sep 30, 2014

Do NOT let your players pull the lever that releases the lava.

MortalPlague · Oct 1, 2014

Savage Wombat said:
Do NOT let your players pull the lever that releases the lava.

I did, at one point during the 5th Edition playtest, create a high level dungeon that was steadily filling with lava. PCs had to flip switches which would flip doors between 'open' and 'closed' to proceed. The switches would flip every door in the dungeon, which meant the lava would steadily flood more and more sections.

Wrathamon · Oct 1, 2014

This sounds brilliant. I hope you pull it off as I feel it will be truly rewarding.

MortalPlague · Oct 1, 2014

First blood! A yeti has slain one of the kuo toa scouts!

For those of you keeping score at home, that's a point for the yetis. The chuul nearly has a magic item, and the goblins almost have some food. The ogres are lazing about, and the kuo toa are dangerously close to finding a whole bunch of other tribes.

MortalPlague · Oct 5, 2014

Through this experiment, I have learned two things.

1) People are terrible at remembering to reply to emails

2) Organic dungeon creation is showing great promise

A great example of point two; outside of the Medusa lair (NPC monster), there are now two statues. One kuo toa who was surprised while scouting, and one yeti who, after getting a taste for fish-men earlier, took a bite out of the petrified creature. (He was hungry, and wasn't about to let some odd lady keep him from food!)

Sadras · Oct 6, 2014

MortalPlague said:
1) People are terrible at remembering to reply to emails

One of our friends tried something like this in a galactic adventure. It fell apart for two reasons.
It was too much work for the DM and there was one player who was dismal at responding and therefore slowed down the entire process. But it was immense fun while it lasted.

mcbobbo · Oct 7, 2014

Is this dungeon for another group to consume? It seems like the surprises would be known already if this group's PCs were to explore it.

halfling rogue · Oct 7, 2014

Interesting concept. It reminds me of Dawn of Worlds, a collaborative worldbuilding game. It would be cool to see something similar to Dawn of Worlds be done on a micro level such as a region or dungeon

MortalPlague · Oct 14, 2014

mcbobbo said:
Is this dungeon for another group to consume? It seems like the surprises would be known already if this group's PCs were to explore it.

The 'players' in this case are spread out across three D&D groups. On top of that, I have encouraged them not to talk to each other about what is happening with their particular faction. Furthermore, I'm only using vague descriptions of the actual dungeon, referring to entire levels and caves without mapping them in detail. So when a group eventually ventures here, there will be familiar elements, but the actual minutae of the exploration will be just as challenging as usual.

D&D 5E My Players Are Building A Dungeon (And They Don't Know It)

MortalPlague

Adventurer

Savage Wombat

Hero

MortalPlague

Adventurer

Wrathamon

Adventurer

MortalPlague

Adventurer

MortalPlague

Adventurer

Sadras

Legend

mcbobbo

Explorer

halfling rogue

Explorer

MortalPlague

Adventurer

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