D&D General Barrowmaze, Stonehell, Arden Vul, Rappan Athuk and other Megadungeons

[TheSword]

I’ve been a player in Scarlet Citadel by Kobald Press and have thoroughly enjoyed it with @GuyBoy DMing.

Several levels not sure how many but at least 6. With a level taking about 6-12 hours of fairly concentrated game time. Nice mix of challenges. NPCs are interactive and it feels dynamic.

Obviously I can’t comment on everything as I don’t know behind the screen but maybe my DM can.

Scarlet Citadel for 5th Edition - Kobold Press Store

Dare You Descend into the Sorcerous Gloom? Once a fortress where wizards honed their eldritch craft, the Scarlet Citadel now holds a sinister reputation—and for good reason. The dungeon’s well-trod stairs have seen few return from their journeys below. Now, malevolent creatures spin shadowy...

koboldpress.com

 

[GuyBoy]

I’ve been a player in Scarlet Citadel by Kobald Press and have thoroughly enjoyed it with @GuyBoy DMing.

Several levels not sure how many but at least 6. With a level taking about 6-12 hours of fairly concentrated game time. Nice mix of challenges. NPCs are interactive and it feels dynamic.

Obviously I can’t comment on everything as I don’t know behind the screen but maybe my DM can.

Scarlet Citadel for 5th Edition - Kobold Press Store

Dare You Descend into the Sorcerous Gloom? Once a fortress where wizards honed their eldritch craft, the Scarlet Citadel now holds a sinister reputation—and for good reason. The dungeon’s well-trod stairs have seen few return from their journeys below. Now, malevolent creatures spin shadowy...

koboldpress.com

Ask for a reply and ye shall receive:
I really like Scarlet Citadel as a DM. I’m not sure it’s quite big enough to class as a mega-dungeon, but it’s pretty large regardless.
It has a nice little town/village nearby, which has a number of NPC stories to develop via interaction with the PCs, and the dungeon levels are well thought out, make ecological sense (as far as any dungeon can) and provide opportunities for diplomacy as well as bloody combat. It’s certainly challenging.
I’ve added a few NPCs and storylines of my own, and I’m also blessed to have a fine group of players who tend to pick up on hooks pretty quickly, and follow them through.
Overall, a great adventure/campaign to run.

 

[Zaukrie]

I'm happy to sell my hard copy of Rappan Athuk for 5e if anyone wants it. I know I'll never run it....

 

[DarkCrisis]

So Stonehell had a sequel / lower levels. Any good? I kind of want it but I don't want to drop $ on it unless I know it's worth the add on. Plus, kind of want to wait to see if my players even get to the new Level 6 and beyond.

 

[Micah Sweet]

So Stonehell had a sequel / lower levels. Any good? I kind of want it but I don't want to drop $ on it unless I know it's worth the add on. Plus, kind of want to wait to see if my players even get to the new Level 6 and beyond.

I've been wanting to check out Stonehell for a while now. Would you recommend it?

 

[DarkCrisis]

I've been wanting to check out Stonehell for a while now. Would you recommend it?

Ive only been reading it but yeah so far it's exactly what Ive been looking for. The format is so EASY.

 

[Mannahnin]

Stonehell is great, though the treasure is pretty darn light. I recommend at least doubling it to meet Moldvay's guidelines for pace of advancement if you're running xp for treasure.

It is also where I had for the first time one of the iconic megadungeon experiences. The actual threat of getting lost. I played in an online game of it where the DM ran combat theater of the mind, and had us navigate the dungeon on Roll20 using a single token for the party on 10' grid maps. With a 30' light bubble in each direction for torches (dynamic lighting; so we could only see that 7 square wide circle at any given time). And it was on us to map.

More than once we navigated pretty fast and were not always painstaking with our maps. Several of the players had good memories and could generally navigate by memory pretty well. But one time we made a delve into some unfamiliar territory, weren't mapping very carefully, and woke up a spectre or something. We fled like crazy but took a wrong turn into a dead-end chamber on the way out! The spectre cornered us and drained one poor bastard while the rest of us fled again, thankfully figuring out the right exit path and making it out safe.

Definitely one thing that really struck me with Stonehell was the scale and the fun of navigating it.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Hmm, if Stonehell treasure is relatively light, that actually makes it a good fit for Shadowdark, which often involves DMs having to slash TSR-era treasure hauls way down so that everyone doesn't level up each time they find some loot.

 

[DarkCrisis]

Hmm, if Stonehell treasure is relatively light, that actually makes it a good fit for Shadowdark, which often involves DMs having to slash TSR-era treasure hauls way down so that everyone doesn't level up each time they find some loot.

I'd love to run it with SD but having to go over every encounter and treasure to convert to the system to make sure the PCs are getting enough xp. Easier to just run it with BX or equivalent.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'd love to run it with SD but having to go over every encounter and treasure to convert to the system to make sure the PCs are getting enough xp. Easier to just run it with BX or equivalent.

I just adjudicate everything on the fly, but my wife -- who can't stand watching me cook that way in the kitchen -- informs me that I'm some sort of maniac.