Dungeon campaign

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That's a house rule:

Spell Component Pouch: A spellcaster with a spell component pouch is assumed to have all the material components and focuses needed for spellcasting, except for those components that have a specific cost, divine focuses, and focuses that wouldn’t fit in a pouch.

That's the entire description. Logic suggests that after casting a spell a certain amount of times, you're out of eye of newt, or whatever, but the RAW abstracts that away, unless the DM wants to put a restriction on the pouch.

 

[BlackMoria]

Make the dungeon more than monsters waiting in rooms for adventurers to kick open the door and kill them and take their stuff.

Things I have done.

Enclaves of monsters in parts of the dungeon will have patrols out, manned barriers, alarms and sentries to restrict entry into their territory. Within the territory, you will have creatures moving between rooms for food, water, etc. This makes an area interesting because it means that something is always going on which the party can observe and try to take advantage off.

Cleared areas are can never be assumed to be safe. Monsters are always prowling around hunting for food so if a party kills some monsters in room, scavenger or opportunitist monsters are going to move into that room to take advantage of the food (bodies), etc.

Inter-creature conflict - monsters are not all friendly like with each other. A tribe of orcs in one area may be at war with a tribe of trogs in another area of the dungeon level. So, there will be scouting, raiding, and full scale battles going. Situations like this will provide the party with opportunities to play one side against the other or to take advantage of the chaos to pass through the contested areas.

The whole idea is to make the dungeon 'alive' and not just a bunch of monsters waiting in rooms waiting to get killed by adventurers.

 

[Hussar]

That's a house rule:

That's the entire description. Logic suggests that after casting a spell a certain amount of times, you're out of eye of newt, or whatever, but the RAW abstracts that away, unless the DM wants to put a restriction on the pouch.

Yes, but, RAW also assumes that you'll be in town from time to time and can refill on eye of newt. In the WLD, you cannot do that. Only what you can pick up as you go. So, this was easier.

On to the OP's question:

Dimensional travel needs to be nixed. If the party can teleport, then they can leave the dungeon pretty easily. Also, even fairly low level spells like Blink can have huge consequences when the PC's can start moving through walls. Put the whole area under Dimensional Lock and you get around all those issues as well as things like teleport.

I'm not sure about web honestly. It is banned in the WLD, but, I'm not sure. I know that it becomes a VERY powerful spell though simply because it can be used in just about every encounter. It's such a strong battlefield control spell that it might warrant being nixed.

To be fair though, wandering monsters are pretty easy to get around in a Dungeon anyway. Arcane lock the door and you can sleep peacefully all night long. Heck, spike the door shut and you're likely golden.

Depending on resources, I would nix the Vow of Poverty. In the WLD, because you could never shop for items, VoP was very, very powerful - no downside really and it got rid of most of the issues facing the party.

That should help.

 

[Merkuri]

Depending on resources, I would nix the Vow of Poverty.

Yeah, I laughed very hard when another WLD player requested that. You give up things we don't have anyway in order to get special abilities? That's like a human saying, "I'll give up the ability to breathe water if I get a fly speed."

 

[Doug McCrae]

When I said the campaign would be set in a single dungeon I meant the 'adventure' part. There would be a town where PCs could resupply fairly nearby, maybe a day's journey.

The campaign world would be made up of town, some wilderness, and dungeon, with dungeon being by far the most important.

My current idea is that the dungeon was a former notorious jail of the 'old empire' where many prisoners died horribly, some now haunting the place as undead. Since that time various tribes of humanoids have occupied the upper levels, sometimes fighting one another for territory.

Fairly recently a BBEG has taken residence, brought the humanoids under his dominion, and is using the place as a base of operations for whatever his nefarious plan is. He has a death knight as his second-in-command. Possibly too cliched, but then the whole thing is.

 

[JDJblatherings]

i'm baffled by folks that think an 80-hour dungeon campaign would be boring or too-much...the game is DUNGEONS and dragons.
an 80 hour 3.x dungeon campaign would be need about 50 encounters.

 

[Hussar]

i'm baffled by folks that think an 80-hour dungeon campaign would be boring or too-much...the game is DUNGEONS and dragons.
an 80 hour 3.x dungeon campaign would be need about 50 encounters.

Depends on how slowly you play. We took 80 sessions to run through the WLD. That's 240 hours. We averaged better than 2 encounters every session and some ran to three or four. If I included traps in there, it would be closer to five or six in every session. (and, since you do get xp for traps, that's not a bad thing to include as an "encounter") The idea that an encounter averages an hour and a half every time depends a lot on the group. My bunch blow through EL 10 encounters in about 40 minutes from the time initiative is rolled to the final blow.

But, then, my bunch were keen. ((Waves at Merkuri))

 

[Stormborn]

i'm baffled by folks that think an 80-hour dungeon campaign would be boring or too-much...the game is DUNGEONS and dragons.

Yeah, so? Admitedly on the surface of it the name would suggest a fair amount of dungeon crawling, but I think that harkens back to the early days of the game more than anything else. While there are, of course, people who still play the game that way (a perfectly valid use) its also obvious from spending just a few minutes looking around these boards that not everyone enjoys endless dungeon delving. Its just not the way we play. Try taking a look at this thread about what constitutes 'normal' for a DnD game. Its different for every group. Don't be so shocked.


To the OP: if you are interested in the "prison" aspect of the game you mgiht consider BaneWarrens by Monte Cook (while set in Ptolus it came out long before the megabook and the setting isnt neccesary to run it) which is kind of a combo vault of evil/prison. It might give you some ideas about some really powerful things that people would want hidden away.

 

[EditorBFG]

i'm baffled by folks that think an 80-hour dungeon campaign would be boring or too-much...the game is DUNGEONS and dragons.

So, an entire campaign where no creatures were encountered but DRAGONS would be alright too?

 

[Asmor]

So, an entire campaign where no creatures were encountered but DRAGONS would be alright too?

Well, it takes a special kind of person to handle such an intensely awesome campaign idea... A special kind of person I like to call "Men." Sadly, real Men (yes, capital M) are in short supply these days and you're just left with a bunch of pansies who want to "role play" and play weak, pathetic things like elves and bards and elvish bards. Feh.

(Yes, this is sarcasm. Well... mostly )