Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
So, yesterday, I took a crack at generating a megadungeon on the fly, sort of.
I used one of @Dyson Logos's megadungeon maps, decided what was in each quadrant, generally speaking, created a bit of lore for each, created wandering monster tables for the quadrants, made some custom monsters (so fun to do, in Shadowdark) and then set some characters loose.
I had printed out the dungeon in 11 x 17" format, laminated (via FedEx/Kinkos) and wrote room numbers on the map as the PCs explored, jotting down notes in a Google Doc as they explored. I now have about 22 rooms (out of ... 70-ish?) at least lightly detailed. The next expedition this Friday will start at the same entrance (I count four on the map) and thus have a little more detailed experience, although I'll add more details to the doc as they go through, and likely add a few more rooms to the map.
(If/when I have time in a very busy week, I also intend to improve what's in there now, based on the first group's feedback.)
Eventually, when all of the rooms have been visited, I'll open up the map in Affinity Photo, put the numbers on there and put it all in one doc for future use.
This is an experiment, but so far, it's definitely better than me sitting down and plotting out all of a 70 room complex before play ever begins. (For me, that is. I know others would love doing that.)
I used one of @Dyson Logos's megadungeon maps, decided what was in each quadrant, generally speaking, created a bit of lore for each, created wandering monster tables for the quadrants, made some custom monsters (so fun to do, in Shadowdark) and then set some characters loose.
I had printed out the dungeon in 11 x 17" format, laminated (via FedEx/Kinkos) and wrote room numbers on the map as the PCs explored, jotting down notes in a Google Doc as they explored. I now have about 22 rooms (out of ... 70-ish?) at least lightly detailed. The next expedition this Friday will start at the same entrance (I count four on the map) and thus have a little more detailed experience, although I'll add more details to the doc as they go through, and likely add a few more rooms to the map.
(If/when I have time in a very busy week, I also intend to improve what's in there now, based on the first group's feedback.)
Eventually, when all of the rooms have been visited, I'll open up the map in Affinity Photo, put the numbers on there and put it all in one doc for future use.
This is an experiment, but so far, it's definitely better than me sitting down and plotting out all of a 70 room complex before play ever begins. (For me, that is. I know others would love doing that.)