Dungeon - The Cube

[AmorFati]

I'm currently working on a dungeon inspired by the movie Cube.
Seeing, as I've planed to make it a 6*6*6 20 ft. square rooms dungeon, it'll be pretty huge.
There will of course be several bigger rooms as well, but still it will be a dungeon with about 150 rooms.

The rooms will also shift around during play. Seeing as this will be a forum game, I'm planning to shift the rooms one time per day. I'll roll a 2d6 to determine what room I'll use as starting point for the shifting (x-axis and y-axis), then roll 1d12 to determine if this room shift nort, east, south or west. When it shift, it will the push all other rooms on that same row as well. Because of this shifting, doors that opened up to rooms before might very well open up to a stone wall now, etc.

Now, I've got lots of ideas for encounters, traps, puzzles etc that will fill up the rooms, but no where enough for ALL the rooms!
I'd appreciate any fun puzzles, interesing encounters (Combat an otherwise), innovative traps etc that you could come up with, quests they get from "inhabitants" etc etc.

I am aiming for anything in the range of ECL 10 - 16.

What I got so far, is:
Each level of the dungeon have a special feature. Bottom level is underwaters, so the PC's would have to find some way to breathe water. Mostly underwater creatures live there, of course.
Top level gave no gravity, so they'll be flying around, together with airborne creatures.
I'll have one Elemental level.
I want one "humanoid" level as well.
now, I've got 2 levels with undetermined features. Possible features could be undead, magical beasts, animals and plants, outsiders etc.

Now, to get out from the dungeon, they'd have to collect 6 keys/stones/whatevers, to open the exit on the top level. One of these keys can be found on each level, after some kind of "boss fight" for that level.
The "boss fights" I've pretty much got covered, I think, but suggestions would be appreciated there as well.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

If you want something really frightening, you should design something based upon Time Cube!

 

[AmorFati]

If you want something really frightening, you should design something based upon Time Cube!

Timecube? That the 2nd one, Hypercube?

 

[talien]

Timecube? That the 2nd one, Hypercube?

Much, much worse.

http://www.timecube.com/

 

[Ambrus]

I liked Cube. An impressive performance for a movie shot entirely in a one room set. If you like the idea of a moving room dungeon, you may want to check out the old 2e Dungeon Magazine adventure called Ex-Libris. It's a large magical library complex made up of 16 squares rooms that move around like a giant slide puzzle. Years ago, a friend of mine ran a home-brewed sequel to that adventure whose primary idea proved better than the execution. You may like to consider it as an alternative to your "Cube" style dungeon. He used a rubics cube as the basis for his dungeon. Each facet of the Rubic's cube was numbered and represented a dungeon room. Instead of your 150 rooms it would have a more manageable 54 rooms but with the same 6 "levels" that you have in mind. To move the rooms, just rotate a side of the cube. You could even use each side of the cube as an elemental theme, mirroring the layout of the inner planes. The earth rooms, with subtarean creatures, would oppose the air side with your flying creatures. Water would oppose fire. The center square of each side could have a level boss of sorts, perhaps a dragon aligned to the correct element. The negative nergy plane side could be a series of shadowy rooms populated with undead with a powerful lich in the center. The opposing positive energy plane side could represent the final level and the way out with an Angel in the center. As the rooms begin to shift, they'd come into alignment with the rooms of other sides so that the players would never know which element was next. If you're having trouble figuring out how to fill 150 rooms, this might prove a little bit easier while still remaining dynamic and interesting. Just a suggestion though.

 

[der_kluge]

If you want it to be just like the movie, you should include an autistic guy, and your game should SUCK A*S.

That movie was lame.

 

[AmorFati]

I liked Cube. An impressive performance for a movie shot entirely in a one room set. If you like the idea of a moving room dungeon, you may want to check out the old 2e Dungeon Magazine adventure called Ex-Libris. It's a large magical library complex made up of 16 squares rooms that move around like a giant slide puzzle. Years ago, a friend of mine ran a home-brewed sequel to that adventure whose primary idea proved better than the execution. You may like to consider it as an alternative to your "Cube" style dungeon. He used a rubics cube as the basis for his dungeon. Each facet of the Rubic's cube was numbered and represented a dungeon room. Instead of your 150 rooms it would have a more manageable 54 rooms but with the same 6 "levels" that you have in mind. To move the rooms, just rotate a side of the cube. You could even use each side of the cube as an elemental theme, mirroring the layout of the inner planes. The earth rooms, with subtarean creatures, would oppose the air side with your flying creatures. Water would oppose fire. The center square of each side could have a level boss of sorts, perhaps a dragon aligned to the correct element. The negative nergy plane side could be a series of shadowy rooms populated with undead with a powerful lich in the center. The opposing positive energy plane side could represent the final level and the way out with an Angel in the center. As the rooms begin to shift, they'd come into alignment with the rooms of other sides so that the players would never know which element was next. If you're having trouble figuring out how to fill 150 rooms, this might prove a little bit easier while still remaining dynamic and interesting. Just a suggestion though.

Thanks a lot! Lots of good ideas here, and so far the only on-topic response.

 

[Ambrus]

Thanks a lot! Lots of good ideas here, and so far the only on-topic response.

Glad you like it. Let me know if you end up going with my idea. I'm curious to hear about what you decide.

 

[AmorFati]

Glad you like it. Let me know if you end up going with my idea. I'm curious to hear about what you decide.

I'll go with my 150 rooms (It'll most likely by less than 100 when I'm done with the room-designing though), but I'll use the elemental and alignment ideas your DM used.

 

[Simplicity]

Cube was awesome. Will it work for a D&D game? .... No, I don't think it will.

But you know, you can always try.

For extra fun, you could have the ending be like the ending of Cube Zero.
Where you actually find out what happens once the people get out of the cube...
Oh, those poor, poor schmucks.