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

[Chef]

Searching...

Do you make them pick the area that they are searching, the exact 5' spot. Or do you ask for a general search check of the room? If so, do you let everybody have a roll? And if you do, how long to you say it takes .. a few rounds, a minute, or 1 round * size of room.

I let all my players make a general search check for the whole room. Every player who is searching gets to roll and it takes 1 round per square in the room unlesss room is full of debris or somethhing then it takes longer. If a player makes a specific statement like "I look for loose stones in the wall under the bed" and there actually is a loose stone in the wall under the bed then I give a big bonus to the search check or just let them automatically find whatever it is.

 

[jim pinto]

So if a player wants the archon to summon a dwarven waraxe, then he needs place at least 90 gp worth of stuff before the lantern archon and make a craft (weaponsmithing) check. If he fails the check then one of the sacrificial items might be destroyed and he can try again. If he succeeds then all of the sacrificial items are gone and he gets the weapon. I’m not sure how to rationalize this exactly in the game world but it seemed like a fun idea since it lets the players use crafting skills and gives a use to all the items they find.

I let them take 20 on skill checks once per character per session.

the justification can be this simple

the have to be able to visualize how the sword/axe/mace is made in order for the lantern archon to replicate it, which it does by reading their mind.... hence the craft check. this has a lot of cool. and the gold just fuels the process of making it. so if they fail the check, 10% of the gold is consumed in the "starting up" of the archon's internal whatever.

take 20 once per session is good.

peace

 

[Qwillion]

Prep for the long hall

I was given World's Largest Dungeon for Christmass, I have been reading it over, I have printed up individual map sections (thank you jim for making that possible) and writing on thesse B&W top give me a quick overview.

I am replacing a number of monsters with monsters from other books because as has been said before there are too many darkmantles, rat swarms and dire rats, I felt there was good use of the monsters but it felt like a forced contraint not to include some fiendish weasels, baboons or monsters from other books, i am keeping everything fiendish however. I am also going to be dropping more clues as to what the fook is going on. I feel it was a major flaw of section A to only include the GM on the story, and provide no motivation for the players to find out what is going on.

I am finding that for the sake of being modular there is very little in the way of over arching story. My players are finishing banewarrens while I read WLD and it had the basic idea that you cannot destroy evil as you only beget more evil so you must imprision it. (I also feel that banewarrens did a better job of presenting that idea) I have chosen to set the WLD in FR since it is the setting my players are most familiar with it and It will be a return for me after a 4 year hiatis in my own homebrew world. I have set the dungeeon far to the north of the moon sea regeion between the anaroch desert and the great glaciar near a place called the tortured lands and the nameless mountains.

I have decided to replace the nameless celestials of imprisonment with the ancient old empires diety Hoar (Assuran) the god of Vengence, Retribution and Potetic Justice. This god has much declined, and made me think that death was to easy for the things locked away in the WLD.

My players have chosen to all be human and be evil, they are starting out in a dirty dozen fashion being prisoners in the dungeons of the Citadel of the Raven. They are all busy currently creating backgrounds so I can tie their characters to the dungeon so that we can have some character driven stories in the dungeon itself.

Is there anything that I am missing that would disrupt the idea of actually trying to create and arch that would tie the modular dungeons together since I run campaigns and not adventures. (I have run 6 campagains that each have run 2-5 years)

 

[hitomikitage]

Personally, I just roll a random encounter each time anyone in the group takes a 20. This has the added effect of adding traps that are triggered by taking a 20 to disarm a trap. I think it makes it a little more interesting.

As far as search checks go, I tell my players how many people they can get to search an area. This has caused them to creat "Search Teams" in order to more effectively aid each other in a search check.

I decide on a timing mechanic for automatically shutting doors. The mirror room in B I had shut behind the first group of guys that went in. I basically asked everyone who was going in and who was staying out. All who went in were trapped inside, and those that said they stayed out were trapped outside. Other rooms had longer delays, or specific triggering mechanisms either in place already (such as the alcove with the defending quarterstaff in B) or I just made one up that seemed appropriate.

To Jim, regarding what you would change:

Encounter conditions are good, but things like noises and minor tremors, especially in rooms where there is nothing else, makes it hard to convey those things to players. I use them to the best of my ability, but since I run in a game store where there are distractions, it makes it tough to set a mood sometimes. I also find some of the room descriptions to be unwieldy. This is mainly due to the fact that there were room descriptions written as if the PCs were at one of the doors, when it was very possible for them to come into the room from a different door.

I agree that the dungeon should have been long instead of square. That would have made it easier for me and the group to go from start to finish. Especially if you start ramping encounters into the epic range at the end. Like the Kraken in L being a psionicist or something crazy like that. I think it would have given it a more Ghouls and Ghosts or Castlevania feel (one of my favorite all-time video games.) Especially if you have sections of the dungeon go up or down in elevation changes. That could have accounted for the inclusion of submerged regions as well as high elevation regions.

Having something on the order of 8 regions of the dungeon (I'm lettering alphabetically, not necessarily by the regions that would be included) where A, B, and C are on the same level, then the PCs go further underground (either a hole created in the floor of the dungeon, or a gradual sloping further underground) where D could be shallows and swamps and E could be the deeps. Then an ascent back up to F and G (which could be the climax, creating a hole in the roof of the dungeon) and then a climb up steep mountains with Giants and flying creatures and such to actually escape the dungeon. This would even allow you to have different climate conditions in some of the regions. A, B, and C could be standard fare dungeon (with C similar to I, just to keep with all of the different bizarre themes with some of the regions in the dungeon) while D is swamps and shallows, E is deeps, F could bring the PCs up through a volcano for a fire-oriented region, followed by a surreal kind of region that would be either the equivalent of N, D, or G (depending on your preference for a climactic region) for region G, and then H could cover your cold weather and aerial encounters.

Damn, makes me wish I could go back and start again (almost.)

Thanks,
Howard Hooven

 

[The Horror]

Ok, tell me of region G.

I see a lot of potential in this region. A lot. Unfortunately I also envision some problems.

Firstly, how do the PCs cross the river of fire?

Secondly, my players will be entering from the South approach (there is only one). They will encounter the demon forces first, then probably wonder the banks of the river for a while until they come across the Children of the Inner Light. Since the artifact the Celestials want is in those first few rooms, they will pick it up and deliver it without too many hassles. What then? Most of the conflict in the rest of the region should be building up to the force wall coming down.

Thus I have concocted up a plan. The crystal they will need has a small crack on it. The demons guarding it will put up only token resistance to the group, and run away very quickly - they want them to get the crystal. When they approach the Children of the Inner Light they will first have to kill the Basilisk, then find out they have the crystal the forces of good so sorely need. The crystal is put in place to release the Celestial battery guy (Cylerbai sp?). When this is done the crystal is revealed to be unstable and in danger of imminent collapse. Meanwhile the only one who could power the field has lapsed into a coma.

The PCs are thus informed that the great demon will surely break free, and that the forces of good are simply not numerous enough to triumph over the demon forces. It is of vital importance that the PCs move to the northern end of the region and gather allies for the final battle. The Celestials cannot go with them since they will be attacked on sight. The PCs are also informed that they should avoid contacting the demon forces at all costs.

Thusly the PCs get to explore the rest of the region, hopefully finishing off on the little island before the force walls come down for the end battle. The fallen angel should be able to redeem herself in the final engagement, and the undead lord I plan to replace with the cursed paladin from the Order of Myruun, thus giving them another potential ally that will be willing to help given the right stimulus. The guy on the island with his Nightmare mount would also be willing to help if the Celestials promise to leave him alone, and he in turn could bring in a nasty Earth elemental into the fray (if the PCs recover the item that summoned it from the rubble).

Does this seem reasonable? I had to rush it and didn't have access to the book but that should cover the basics anyhow.

Still don't know how the PCs are meant to cross that river of fire though....

Ok, rushing off for now.


The Horror

 

[spacecrime.com]

Having just finished Region G a few days ago, your plan sounds pretty good to me. I particularly like the "crystal is cracked" idea; it's a great twist.

I will note that the party might not end up with the crystal; the demon triumvirate is a bad-ass set of bosses, and the party may well end up fleeing for their lives.

My victims players went into that subsection with a party of 6 ranging from levels 8-11; the hezrou defeated the party, captured half of it, and handed them over to the glabrezu to throw in his slave cell. This moved the plot along nicely -- they promptly tricked the quasit and escaped, finding the crystal in the process -- but half the party died getting the crystal past the demons and back to the angels. (Most of the rest of the party would have died too, except for the still-very-weak Cyrlebrai coming to their aid with enough buffing mojo so that the party was able to turn the tide.) I didn't even need the big-big finish to the Region, since taking out the triumvirate pushed the PCs to their absolute limit. We had a ball.

Anyway, war story over. Just don't be too surprised is the PCs don't get to the crystal. It'll be that much more fun if they have to go back, and the "find allies" storyline should be fun either way.

Oh, I forgot. The River of Fire. Assuming your PCs are in the appropriate range, at least one of them should be able to get access to a fly spell. My party used that to shuttle across as needed, except for early on where they crossed the narrow section on the northeast corner with ropes affixed to the walls. I was pretty liberal on this one; it's a minor obstacle on the way to the bigger encounters. However, they did get well and truly screwed when they lost their flyers at G75; pinned down on a small island with an angry nightmare, not a pretty sight!

cheers,

 

[Qwillion]

Question: How did the Titan Breysus Die?


HANDOUTS
One thing the world's largest dungeon is lacking is handouts. Since I am spending a lot of time making the WLD less modular and more specific to my campaign, I will try to leave out specific proper names from my handouts so that they can be used by all.

My first handout is a bit of estoic research into the legends and myths of Carcer Maximus Mundi (I am such a thief)

Quillion's WLD GM Chapbook
http://www.callofthehorn.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1345#post1345

 

[Sieobahn]

Are other DM's out there killing off PC's as fast as I am?

So far we have had four sessions, about 20 hours gaming time all up. They can covered about two thirds of region A, and a few rooms in B after 15 days of campaign time.

And I have killed off 12 characters! This is strange for my group, there are 7 players, most of which have been showing up (I charged them AU$10 each to cover some of the costs of buying the adventure, they must want to get their money's worth), and they tend to min/max the characters to the nth degree.

I have to admit on the third session the dice were running really hot, I was dealing out criticals all over the place. I killed bout six characters in that session alone!

The last session I decided to go easy on them and fudge a few rolls so they wouldn't die as readily, but I still managed to kill off two PC's by accident.

They are still mostly 2nd level, nearing third. I decided to hand out XP at the normal rate because the large group is diluting it, plus I want them up a few levels where they won't get killed off as easily on a single hit.

Now if they would only learn the value of tactics and surprise. Most monsters hear and see them coming a mile off!

I have been posting write-ups of the adventure here if you would like to read them.

 

[spacecrime.com]

Are other DM's out there killing off PC's as fast as I am?

Hm. I think you're doing better than I am on that front. We're on Game Day 37, the average party level is around 10, and I've only smoked 19 player characters. (Okay, plus another 4 that were raised or resurrected.)

FWIW, our PC deaths tend to clump -- most of the time things go well and they can back each other up, but when they get in over their heads a lot characters can die all at once.

cheers,

 

[jim pinto]

Question: How did the Titan Breysus Die?

honestly?

old age

however, the more dramatic answer is...

...it was his time
...the gods willed it
...the age of man was coming
...(big spolier) when his brother (region o) was encased in ice, he died
...insert reason here