Dungeon campaign

[Doug McCrae]

I'm planning on running a campaign set within a single dungeon. Probably about 80 hours play total, 10*8 hour sessions.

Any advice? Anything I should look out for? I was thinking of banning Rope Trick so the PCs can't escape wandering monsters too easily.

 

[Asmor]

I'd consider encouraging the use of classes that have per-encounter or unlimited use abilities, like martial adepts and warlocks.

Don't have to worry about the party resting when they don't need to!

 

[Mythmere1]

I wouldn't ban anything - the rules are really designed for dungeon adventuring. If the players use rope trick to rememorize and sleep, that's all to the good. THey still have to get their loot to the surface, and that's when wandering monsters have a chance to get them.

In a dungeon campaign, it's a good trick to give them some rumors of particular treasures so that they can have objectives within the dungeon rather than just a linear crawl. They might know that some statue has a trick to revealing a secret room with an ancient hoard, etc. THese sub-objectives give more excitement than a straightforward exploration.

 

[Jhaelen]

I'm planning on running a campaign set within a single dungeon. Probably about 80 hours play total, 10*8 hour sessions.

Any advice? Anything I should look out for?

Umm. Your greatest problem will be to avoid boring the players to death. I've seen players commit collective suicide to finally put an end to a gigantic multi-level dungeon-crawl.

 

[Herobizkit]

Umm. Your greatest problem will be to avoid boring the players to death. I've seen players commit collective suicide to finally put an end to a gigantic multi-level dungeon-crawl.

Yes, and I would be one of them.

I would STRONGLY consult with your players to see if such an undertaking would be enjoyable to them, and I would also ask for suggestions on how to theme the dungeon to make it more interesting.

 

[robberbaron]

If you intend to have wandering monsters interrupting the party's rest then either they'll quit or you'll have to allow Rope Trick, just so the casters can recover spells.

Herobizkit, seconded. Make sure your players understand the game style. If they are cool with the restrictions implicit within an epic crawl (darkness, minimal trading, limited access to components, etc.) then great, go for it.
If not, don't inflict it on them.

 

[Stormborn]

A giant Dungeon Crawl wouldnt be for my group but I can think of some things that might make it more interesting:

Take a page from Sunless Citadel, in which a tribe of goblins and a tribe of kobolds were competing for the same territory, and make the dungeon home to two competing societies (not necceasrilly those two). Either of them might be willing to work with the PCs in exchange for their aid against their rivals - depending on the PCs actions. A little bit of role playing can really help break up a big 'crawl.

If this is a really large and virtually unexplored dungeon the PCs may not be the only ones interested in it. Think about a boom town from the gold rush days of the american west. Hastily thrown together houses and stores, and mostly bars, casinos, and brothels. In this sitch it would also have magic item crafters, itenerant clerics, and magical "banks" to store loot in Strong Boxes of Holding or the like. Lots of interesting NPCs to ineract with, rivals to face off in the dungeon, etc. A little bit of role playing can really help break up a big 'crawl.

Portions of the dungeon are temporally out of phase with the rest of the Material Plane due to the experiments of the original owner. Occasionally the PCs trigger something that sends them back to whent he dungeon was a well inhabited lair of a cabal of wizards, allowing them access to areas that have collapsed and a chance to learn things they might not otherwise about what the dungeon holds, who built it and why, and how to defeat guardians left for a long time. A little bit of role playing can really help break up a big 'crawl.

Have intelligent magic items, comic relief mosterous humanoids, spirits that inhabit random party members to chide or direct the party in cryptic phrases, etc A little bit of role playing can really help break up a big 'crawl.


I detect a pattern. Basically, Dungeon Crawls are fine but if all the PCs do is check for traps, open the door, kill the monster/figure out the puzzel, go to the next door it will get realy really boring over 10 long sessions.

 

[Merkuri]

I remember the web spell being banned in the World's Largest Dungeon when we played through it. I think there was another banned spell as well, though I don't remember what it was. The DM also ruled that everyone was treated as having the Eschew Materials feat in the sense that we didn't have to keep track of spells with non-costly material components (but we still needed to have our spell component pouch handy). For costly material components we could make a survival check to try and harvest materials from appropriate monsters we killed. Not many of us actually took advantage of that rule, though.

I think there were only three players who made it through the Dungeon from beginning to end. Everyone else who was there at the end joined somewhere in the middle, and we kept losing players along the way. Of course, this was an online game, and online players tend to be more flaky than real-life players, so a little bit of player turnover was expected. While we were all glad to finally finish the Dungeon and move onto something more normal, with cities and trees and places where you can buy stuff, we had a sense of accomplishment because we slogged through the whole thing.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The DM also ruled that everyone was treated as having the Eschew Materials feat in the sense that we didn't have to keep track of spells with non-costly material components (but we still needed to have our spell component pouch handy).

That's what a spell component pouch does all on its own.

 

[Merkuri]

That's what a spell component pouch does all on its own.

Hmm, I thought (and so did our DM, I guess) that a spell component pouch had a certain number of uses, like the Disguise or Healer's kits.