World's Largest Dungeon in actual play [Spoilers!]

[twilko]

Looking at it, I think I'm gald. On the one hand, Region E would be much better for them finally getting some plot information (they've had no luck with that in Region A), but, the maps and such for Region E look like a huge mess. The errata for that section are huge, and I'm not sure it even scratches the surface. Plus it's that huge mass of empty rooms. I was working on trying to insert the "bonus" rooms for that Region back in, but trying to figure out where the most logical place to put them was starting to drive me batty.

I spent a lot of time fixing up E and putting in the extra rooms. I have an assignment for uni to finish over the weekend but after that I can help if you want.

 

[Hussar]

Rvalle is right. B really is a terrible mess. The map doesn't work as it is. There is no way for the goblins to get from and to the temple in the North East from their lair in the South West. The abandoned halls are bloody repetitive with far too many traps. Also, watch some of the bit in the south east of the map - there should be a couple more doors.

 

[raynbow]

Thanks for the heads up about B. I'll take a closer look at it before our next session.

I'd love any help with E, if anyone has already done the work of adding the extra rooms.

I'm more worried about the empty rooms in E, than extra traps in B.

My party is rogue heavy, so lots of traps are ok. They are still talking about the fireball trap that leads to an empty room that's in Region A.

They've gotten pretty paranoid of traps based on the ones they ran into in Region A, and since the first thing they did in Region B was fall into a pit, I think they'll continue to be paranoid.

 

[Hussar]

Honestly, I would strip out a number of the traps all over the WLD. It gets awfully repetitive to have yet again another trap. Yes, dungeons should have traps, but, jeez, there's a couple of dozen in EVERY region. It's just in B, they are almost all concentrated in the same place. And, a number of the traps are pretty lethal as well. There's a 10d6+10 lightning bolt trap in there. That's a pretty decent chance of frying 4th level PC's. I lost a lot of PC's in that part. Ironically enough, all by the same player.

B has lots of great potential honestly. The different factions idea is great. It just needs some work. Take a Mark I pencil to your map to make it work, be careful of the BMIASR (Big Monster in a Small Room) issues and have fun. I would suggest having one of the factions actually move out to meet the PC's. Perhaps they're observed for a while and then contacted fairly peacefully. Play up the politics of the region.

If you feel the need to get really into it, start charting out troop movements. Have the various groups move around regularly. That sort of thing. Move about a quarter of the monster encounters into the hallways. It will give it a very fluid feel and, especially after the very static feel of A, it might really jazz up the region.

 

[rvalle]

My party has cleared A and about 1/2 of E. They took a look at I and the description I gave of the first corridor was graphic enough they turned around and went to F. They did about 6 rooms but had two party members killed over two sessions and decided against playing with any more minotaurs. They then went to B via A and bee-lined through to C where they have just entered ash the Tricksters cell and are trying to figure out what happened. Most of the party is now 6th level with one just hitting 7th.

How did they handle the gate doorways in F? My group quit after hitting the first one and half the party was blind/confused/ect.

rv

 

[twilko]

How did they handle the gate doorways in F? My group quit after hitting the first one and half the party was blind/confused/ect.

rv

As luck would have it the first key that my party used opened the door in the same corridor as they were. So I described them stareing at this other partys behinds. After a while they worked out what was going on and proceeded through two more. The first led to an empty room but they could hear minotaurs so back they went. The next key led to a big fight with one party fatality. It was the fatality that decided the party to go elsewhere.

I had the doors stay connectted for 2 minutes or until closed. My party has the SOP of closing all doors behind them. 2 sessions in A taught them that. The door worked like a normal door and had no other effect on them.

 

[pokedigimaniac]

I'm still here too!

Running two parties through the WLD - one is in G and the other is in I. (The Region G one is an IRL campaign from my college that's shifted to online for the summer, as I'm cross-country, while the Region I one is a purely online one)

Here's quick updates on them.

The Region G group is the longest-running WLD group I've had, with one of the players actually having been there from the start. The other two players joined a bit later, we lost a fourth due to school dropout, and the last two rejoined after a half-year hiatus from D&D. Their route has led them thus far:

Region A, where they warred heavily against Longtail and his hordes, coming up against a wiser Longtail who had discovered how to use the portal to corrupt already-existing creatures.

Region E, where they engaged the shadows in a long, protracted struggle, finally defeating Seraxes without any casualties to themselves. They made contact with the celestials, and joined the garrison. They were then tasked to go investigate the reports of Arum resurfacing in C. So they traveled through...

Region B, which was a shell of its former self, thanks to a powerful dread necromancer halfling by the name of Selena, who had wreaked havoc in the region by opening the Tombs and undeadifying many of the region's inhabitants. The few remaining beings in the region (who have not been found) had to form a hasty truce and hole up behind the Maze... The group encountered Selena, who played cat-and-mouse with them, herding them through the region and finally into the undead paladins' room for a final battle, before letting them flee into...

Region C! It was here that the group spent quite some time, finding the key to F and defeating the giants, as well as encountering Arum's maddened memories (unfolding the story of the region in dreams as they went along) and his journal. They also encountered Nardarik the black dragon, who has taken a fancy to the mantle of Arum - it makes people fear him more. They negotiated a retreat from Nardarik at some cost, and then tried to marshal the gnolls to go defeat Selena. However...

Back in Region C, it was wholly empty as they went along - with clear tracks of a horde of undead heading out and through A and E, into...

Region F! Here, the group encounted and parleyed with some minotaurs, taking on a task of exterminating the barghests in E for the Broken Axe tribe in return for passage through their territory to follow the undead horde (which had headed north). They returned...

To Region E, dealing death to some barghests. However, an inevitable cantered into the battle, and they realized that the barghests had allied with the inevitables (Thank you for the idea, BBR) and that the celestials were imprisoned. Kelara contacted the group through a return message, and told them to seek out help in the other garrisons. To this end, they followed the lava out of Region F, to...

Region G! They had found some scouts from the garrison previously (two new player characters) that decided they were going to try and take on the Demon Triumvirate on their own, and ended up summarily fleeing south. (This also served to prevent the group from going north out of C and into SURE DEATH.) So they followed the lava down to the garrison, reported, went through the standard hoopla, and got the quest to go find the Flame of Aranas to save Cyrlebrai and stuff. They then proceeded to trounce the basilisk, making INCREDIBLE saves against its gaze at all times. Now they're helping with the defense while trying to decide just where to start searching for the Flame. Little do they know that a quasit has snuck into the base...

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Whew, that was longer than expected.
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The other group has only run for a few sessions, basically fastforwarding up to Region E, and then getting sent into I on a scouting mission as provisional garrison members. They've poked round I a bit, run into some chokers, and are really, really not liking the region at all.

Heh. Surprisingly unbalanced descriptions. Ah well - hope that serves to keep the thread moving!

 

[erucsbo]

has anyone DMd the northern part of Region M?
tips, comments and gotchas welcome.
I'm dumping my party across the lava river with a promise that they leave the Spider Kings alone.
They may decide to try and get back to the Garrison in E via J and I.
It just seems that the top half of M is a little, er, boring? compared with the southern section.

 

[rvalle]

As luck would have it the first key that my party used opened the door in the same corridor as they were. So I described them stareing at this other partys behinds. After a while they worked out what was going on and proceeded through two more. The first led to an empty room but they could hear minotaurs so back they went. The next key led to a big fight with one party fatality. It was the fatality that decided the party to go elsewhere.

I had the doors stay connectted for 2 minutes or until closed. My party has the SOP of closing all doors behind them. 2 sessions in A taught them that. The door worked like a normal door and had no other effect on them.

Oh, so you didn't roll on the random effect table if the person going though the door wasn't LG.

I used the table but modified it to either LG or a Garrison Member. 3 of the party members are in the Garrison now, having taken the test in E but only one of those are LG. I figured since some of the Garrison (Besar, Doj...) are CG having something like this doorway that would effect them was kind of silly.

 

[twilko]

Oh, so you didn't roll on the random effect table if the person going though the door wasn't LG.

I used the table but modified it to either LG or a Garrison Member. 3 of the party members are in the Garrison now, having taken the test in E but only one of those are LG. I figured since some of the Garrison (Besar, Doj...) are CG having something like this doorway that would effect them was kind of silly.

No I left out the random effect. I thought that they would have enough trouble with the minotaurs. I also added seals at the doors between areas same as the ward seals that the Garrison was trying to maintain. Most were pretty weak but I had one party member turn evil by this stage and there was a change that neutral characters might get zapped.

All in all enough for the party to deal with.