Which Edition for a Megadungeon Campaign? Why?

[Monayuris]

It's kind of a case of "pick your poison."
In TSR-era D&D, you have simple rules and speed, but a snowball's chance in Hades of actually surviving or making meaningful progress into the dungeon without being one-shot killed by a kobold or dying instantly to a poison needle trap.
In WotC-era D&D (and PF), you have somewhat slow and cumbersome rules, but greater tactical options and better odds of living through an encounter.
Honestly, if I were going to run a dungeon crawler, I'd just run HeroQuest or Descent, either of which would capture the experience better than D&D.

I feel the opposite. When I see HeroQuest or Descent or any other dungeon crawler, I think why not just play D&D instead, it is better at it in every way.

I don't get the freedom to approach problem solving in a creative way. I don't get the ability to come up with clever plans and approaches or the infinite ways I can interact with the environment/dungeon.

Those games can be fun but they really break down to just rolling dice to do something since they are designed as board games not role-playing games.

 

[Reynard]

I'd highly suggest Old School Essentials if you do go that route. It is B/X but better organized. It is 100% compatible with anything written for B/X (or Labyrinth Lord for that matter). It also has an Advanced Fantasy line where it takes the classic AD&D classes (paladin, ranger, druid) and redesigns them in B/X. It gives you a best of both worlds situation where you can get all the class options of AD&D but with the simplicity of B/X.

I always wonder why people sell hard on OSE when Labyrinth Lord was first and does everything OSE does.

 

[Reynard]

I feel the opposite. When I see HeroQuest or Descent or any other dungeon crawler, I think why not just play D&D instead, it is better at it in every way.

I don't get the freedom to approach problem solving in a creative way. I don't get the ability to come up with clever plans and approaches or the infinite ways I can interact with the environment/dungeon.

Those games can be fun but they really break down to just rolling dice to do something since they are designed as board games not role-playing games.

They are really just combat simulators, and all combat all the time in a megadungeon campaign just makes for a short campaign, or one with a l lot of character sheets pinned to the wall.

 

[S'mon]

I'm curious of what published examples you would use to put us all on the same page, because I was reading "megadundeon" as "a big dungeon filled with rooms, hallways, traps, and monsters."
What pops into my head are Rappan Athuk, Barrowmaze, Temple of Elemental Evil, and The Caverns of Thracia. I'd also describe Undermountain as one, though the 5e version left much to be desired.

Barrowmaze is designed as a smallish megadungeon. Stonehell is a notably big megadungeon. Dwimmermount is a small to medium dungeon. Each can sustain a campaign. Thracia is too small, it's a module.

 

[S'mon]

So I can help with that, using Barrowmaze as an example. I've run it somewhat recently in 5e, for my wife and her brother who just wanted to run through something and kill a lot of monsters. I'd describe the 5e experience as not overly challenging at all or needing any real planning, strategy, or conservation of resources.

Running it in 5e myself. We discovered that at level 4 the encounters on the Barrowmoor become a lot more dangerous than most of the dungeon! I did have a lot of deaths in the mounds & dungeon at 1st level though.

 

[Monayuris]

I always wonder why people sell hard on OSE when Labyrinth Lord was first and does everything OSE does.

I mainly prefer the organization of OSE over LL. OSE is also more faithful to the original B/X rules (if that matters to you). LL has some differences from the original B/X.

Right now, OSE is just more supported and more accessible. With an excellent online SRD and tons of module / zine support. LL has kind of been dead for a while. They're both great games, but I think OSE has replaced LL as the B/X clone / OSR Rosetta Stone.

 

[Reynard]

I mainly prefer the organization of OSE over LL. OSE is also more faithful to the original B/X rules (if that matters to you). LL has some differences from the original B/X.

Right now, OSE is just more supported and more accessible. With an excellent online SRD and tons of module / zine support. LL has kind of been dead for a while. They're both great games, but I think OSE has replaced LL as the B/X clone / OSR Rosetta Stone.

It is always interesting to me what becomes the Flavor of Now or the current It Game. I am playing a session of Blades in the Dark tonight just to try and figure out how that game became the darling it has.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

So the issue is not that 4e is the perfect ruleset for it. The issue is that repetitive aspects of a megadungeon is where 4e is good at providing differentiation and therefore keeps things fresh. And therefore fun.

I am going to disagree with this- other than noting the caveat that if someone prefers 4e, then, sure, that's a fine system to run.

But it is certainly not a great system for the standard tropes of the megadungeon. The very things that it is good at (set pieces, challenge resolution framework through skill challenges, carefully calibrated combats) are the very things you don't need in a mega dungeon.

Conversely, the things that 4e doesn't care about or do well (resource management, short combats, 'old school' skilled play, lethality, need to retreat/not engage, etc.) are all the things that megadungeons exist for.

You certainly could do a mega dungeon in 4e, and I'm sure it would be fun, but it would be fun in a very different way than the traditional megadungeon, which is more about mapping, and carefully considering your resources, and even recognizing that many combats need to be avoided (and not engaging in set pieces).

That's not a mark against 4e, by the way- I think that there's a reason that megadungeons have largely fallen out of favor.

 

[Retreater]

I feel the opposite. When I see HeroQuest or Descent or any other dungeon crawler, I think why not just play D&D instead, it is better at it in every way.

Pacing. We can playing through a dungeon in an hour or so.
Simplicity. I can play it with children or non-D&D players and have a great time.
Tactile. It's fun to move models and scenery around.
Little-to-no GM prep. I can throw open a HeroQuest adventure book and be playing in less than 5 minutes.
Fast combats. Most monsters die in a single wound in HQ. Stats are simple. You don't have to look at attack matrices to see if you accomplished your goal.
Everything good about D&D I can add to HQ: Description, role-play. It's easier to add stuff to fill out a game than to take away stuff to streamline it.

 

[S'mon]

I am going to disagree with this- other than noting the caveat that if someone prefers 4e, then, sure, that's a fine system to run.

But it is certainly not a great system for the standard tropes of the megadungeon. The very things that it is good at (set pieces, challenge resolution framework through skill challenges, carefully calibrated combats) are the very things you don't need in a mega dungeon.

Conversely, the things that 4e doesn't care about or do well (resource management, short combats, 'old school' skilled play, lethality, need to retreat/not engage, etc.) are all the things that megadungeons exist for.

You certainly could do a mega dungeon in 4e, and I'm sure it would be fun, but it would be fun in a very different way than the traditional megadungeon, which is more about mapping, and carefully considering your resources, and even recognizing that many combats need to be avoided (and not engaging in set pieces).

That's not a mark against 4e, by the way- I think that there's a reason that megadungeons have largely fallen out of favor.

Agreed. I like 4e and I like megadungeons (as part of a campaign, I get bored if they're all there is) but the two don't work together. You can play '4e in a big dungeon' but at best it would look more like a highlights reel of an actual Greyhawk/Blackmoor style dungeon campaign.