Gentlegamer
Adventurer
Your fate is what you make.howandwhy99 said:
-
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The Killer Dungeon
- Thread starter Olgar Shiverstone
- Start date
howandwhy99
Adventurer
Precisely. I don't want guaranteed death or failure. But facing death at every turn is no problem. (in character)Gentlegamer said:
funkysnunkulator
First Post
howandwhy99 said:
yeah. facing death at every turn is kind of a drag in real life!!
hahahahahahaha!!!
no. even our most cutthroat games have a way to emerge.
victorious.
yeah, thats right... emerge..... victorious.... or something....
grodog
Hero
G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King and D3 Vault of the Drow are both very very nasty adventures; I've had TPKs in both before, even with generally-savvy players being pretty cautious. The initial battle in WG5 Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun is vicious, and could easily overwhelm even a party of 10 PCs and henchmen, due to sheer numbers of opponents. I wouldn't really characterize them as killer dungeons in the same sense as S1 Tomb of Horrors, but they're among the most challenging modules published.
Other possible candidates:
Other possible candidates:
- the Moathouse from T1 Village of Hommlet
- the first level in WG5 Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure/Maure Castle Dungeon 112
- Three Days to Kill
Bayushi Seikuro
First Post
I know it's not D&D, but the most fun killer-dungeon I've had the joy of was the Tomb of Iuchiban in Legend of the Five Rings.
For one thing, you know going in you're going into a tomb designed to trap a body-stealing blood sorceror, imprisoned in its walls. You know enough of his backstory to know how Bad it is.
It's been years since I've played it, but I remember the 'Fear the Goblin' room -- it was an arrow trap, if I recall correctly -- and the next room, which I managed to somehow get into alone. The trap in that room required that you step on tiles in the order that the Kami lost the tournament to see who'd rule the Empire (the Kami were the children of Sun and Moon, crashed to earth) The difficulty? It's a puzzle for the player, no one can help, and at no point in any of the sourcebooks etc, does it explictly say which order they finish in. Each clanbook would talk about their founder beat this sibling, but lost to that sibling. So, it was a lot of detail work and worry.
The other cool part I remember is the Heart of the Tomb. Basically, when you reached a certain part of the dungeon, you began drawing rooms at random to see where the Heart put you. Some rooms would and could reset, and you had no guarantee of getting to the 'End'. It was the spirit in the Tomb playing horrible tricks.
And also consider, you can't heal naturally in there, and you cannot regain spells inside the tomb.
Good memories.
For one thing, you know going in you're going into a tomb designed to trap a body-stealing blood sorceror, imprisoned in its walls. You know enough of his backstory to know how Bad it is.
It's been years since I've played it, but I remember the 'Fear the Goblin' room -- it was an arrow trap, if I recall correctly -- and the next room, which I managed to somehow get into alone. The trap in that room required that you step on tiles in the order that the Kami lost the tournament to see who'd rule the Empire (the Kami were the children of Sun and Moon, crashed to earth) The difficulty? It's a puzzle for the player, no one can help, and at no point in any of the sourcebooks etc, does it explictly say which order they finish in. Each clanbook would talk about their founder beat this sibling, but lost to that sibling. So, it was a lot of detail work and worry.
The other cool part I remember is the Heart of the Tomb. Basically, when you reached a certain part of the dungeon, you began drawing rooms at random to see where the Heart put you. Some rooms would and could reset, and you had no guarantee of getting to the 'End'. It was the spirit in the Tomb playing horrible tricks.
And also consider, you can't heal naturally in there, and you cannot regain spells inside the tomb.
Good memories.
Stormborn
Explorer
I have honestly never played in a "Killer Dungeon" but would be fine with it if:
a) The average player with an average PC (who should be, in the campaign world, an exceptional person) can survive it (even with the assistance of magical ressurections) with average die rolls. IOW it shouldnt take Rommel running the uber-maxed fighter and rolling 15+ every time to get through it.
b) It is the focus of the campaign. A kiler dungeon dropped into an otherwise ordinary campaign would kill the campaign along with the PCs. A killer mega dungeon should be a campaign unto itself.
c) It is advertized as such. Don't tell me this is an "ordinary dungeon crawl" when you plan on bringing out Tomb of Horrors.
a) The average player with an average PC (who should be, in the campaign world, an exceptional person) can survive it (even with the assistance of magical ressurections) with average die rolls. IOW it shouldnt take Rommel running the uber-maxed fighter and rolling 15+ every time to get through it.
b) It is the focus of the campaign. A kiler dungeon dropped into an otherwise ordinary campaign would kill the campaign along with the PCs. A killer mega dungeon should be a campaign unto itself.
c) It is advertized as such. Don't tell me this is an "ordinary dungeon crawl" when you plan on bringing out Tomb of Horrors.
funkysnunkulator
First Post
our dm council is paid to provide breakneck gaming. the players are smart. a couple of these guys would be jason bourne in real life. we do not get paid to create scenarios which require a natural twenty at least 50% of the time. hahahahaha!!! no, regular rolling will get the job done, but not if the players/characters are stupid.
occasionally the players even outthink us!!! we give it to them. it doesn't happen often.
then we take revenge by creating a scenario requiring natural 21's 90% of the time!!
hahahahahahahahahaha!!!
occasionally the players even outthink us!!! we give it to them. it doesn't happen often.
then we take revenge by creating a scenario requiring natural 21's 90% of the time!!
hahahahahahahahahaha!!!
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