Great Dungeons

[xigbar]

lol...I feel so bad i can't XP that yet...

lordxaviar, you a true, reckless, hero!

Concurred an covered.

 

[lordxaviar]

deleated

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

xigbar, my friends and I have only ever made our own campaigns. Eventually I'd like to try some of these pre-made ones, but haven't gotten to it yet.

One campaign we're still designing and haven't gotten to play yet is built around a Damned city. Summary of the story: 70ish years ago, this City was the center of an Empire. One day, the walled gates close, and never open. Screams, chaos can be heard from outside, but no one could get in, no magic could see in, a fog settled above the city so no one could look down from above, and anyone who scaled the walls never returned.

generations pass, and one day the main gate swings open about 10'. Bold adventurers, Treasure Hunters, City descendants, churches, academics and simply the curious all want to take a look inside to see what has happened to the city. This is designed so the Righteous LG Paladin character determined to fight the demons can party alongside the CE Mercenary-for-hire who's going in for looting and finding information for his well-paying patron. These individuals will fight back to back in order to survive in the Hellish City.

Bits of the backstory include the Emperor making a pact with a demon lord to return his dead queen to life, in exchange for giving the demon control of the city. the 70ish years was the duration of the queen's extended lifespan, and she's now died again, ending the deal. In the time that has passed, all manner of creatures, monsters, demons and undead have twisted the insides of the city. Somewhere at the palace, the demon lord and the mad Emperor still sit. The fog still covers the city, so you can really only see about the length of a city street at a time, beyond that is out of sight.

The beauty of this campaign is each of us plan to rotate DMing different sections of city blocks. I designed the other side of the gate to get us started, a small section of a few streets, buildings, a small stretch of sewers, placed some support NPC's outside the walls and just inside the gate, have a few Oozes, Dire Rat swarms, Carrion Crawlers and Mephits ready to mess with the players as they start poking around.
I also designed for further in a section of suburban neighborhood with classic Zombies hidden inside and coming out of the houses. The houses themselves can be looted for all sorts of useful mundane adventuring items.
Another player has a Warehouse designed for us to go through, and another player has a desecrated temple all set that I'm looking forward to exploring.

Each section of city is claimed by different groups of creatures and defended territorially, with gang-like markings identifying borders. Eventually the PC's will catch onto this and have to decipher the markings as it is a language developed within this city.

Not all monsters will kill-on-sight, and so diplomatic agreements will be an option sometimes. The Lycantrhopes will allow you safe passage through their territory anytime, if you help them in their never-ending battle with the vampires, or what-have-you. Pockets of humans not twisted by the evil will exist in heavily fortified areas, and they may be as dangerous as any monster, or friendly allies, or captives to be rescued out of the city, depending on how the players act diplomatically.

Ultimately things like the Empire's Library, Treasury, Armory and the Palace itself will be sought after, but not before many, many sections of city are explored.

 

[xigbar]

xigbar, my friends and I have only ever made our own campaigns. Eventually I'd like to try some of these pre-made ones, but haven't gotten to it yet.

One campaign we're still designing and haven't gotten to play yet is built around a Damned city. Summary of the story: 70ish years ago, this City was the center of an Empire. One day, the walled gates close, and never open. Screams, chaos can be heard from outside, but no one could get in, no magic could see in, a fog settled above the city so no one could look down from above, and anyone who scaled the walls never returned.

generations pass, and one day the main gate swings open about 10'. Bold adventurers, Treasure Hunters, City descendants, churches, academics and simply the curious all want to take a look inside to see what has happened to the city. This is designed so the Righteous LG Paladin character determined to fight the demons can party alongside the CE Mercenary-for-hire who's going in for looting and finding information for his well-paying patron. These individuals will fight back to back in order to survive in the Hellish City.

Bits of the backstory include the Emperor making a pact with a demon lord to return his dead queen to life, in exchange for giving the demon control of the city. the 70ish years was the duration of the queen's extended lifespan, and she's now died again, ending the deal. In the time that has passed, all manner of creatures, monsters, demons and undead have twisted the insides of the city. Somewhere at the palace, the demon lord and the mad Emperor still sit. The fog still covers the city, so you can really only see about the length of a city street at a time, beyond that is out of sight.

The beauty of this campaign is each of us plan to rotate DMing different sections of city blocks. I designed the other side of the gate to get us started, a small section of a few streets, buildings, a small stretch of sewers, placed some support NPC's outside the walls and just inside the gate, have a few Oozes, Dire Rat swarms, Carrion Crawlers and Mephits ready to mess with the players as they start poking around.
I also designed for further in a section of suburban neighborhood with classic Zombies hidden inside and coming out of the houses. The houses themselves can be looted for all sorts of useful mundane adventuring items.
Another player has a Warehouse designed for us to go through, and another player has a desecrated temple all set that I'm looking forward to exploring.

Each section of city is claimed by different groups of creatures and defended territorially, with gang-like markings identifying borders. Eventually the PC's will catch onto this and have to decipher the markings as it is a language developed within this city.

Not all monsters will kill-on-sight, and so diplomatic agreements will be an option sometimes. The Lycantrhopes will allow you safe passage through their territory anytime, if you help them in their never-ending battle with the vampires, or what-have-you. Pockets of humans not twisted by the evil will exist in heavily fortified areas, and they may be as dangerous as any monster, or friendly allies, or captives to be rescued out of the city, depending on how the players act diplomatically.

Ultimately things like the Empire's Library, Treasury, Armory and the Palace itself will be sought after, but not before many, many sections of city are explored.

That sounds great. A while back, me and a couple of friends designed a campaign in a city based on an annual tournament held in a large colliseum, except this years prize included a powerful magical item. Each round was held in a different arena, and the PCs would have to go through different areas to get to the arena. The battles would be battle royale style between different representatives, including empires being represented. BETWEEN rounds, competeing governments would hire assasins, and other teams would have "accidents," and the PCs would make temporary alliances with other teams, and their would be local gang wars in the city, and the big gangs had teams in the tournament. The PCs would be hired by some enigmatic rich guy.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

That sounds great. A while back, me and a couple of friends designed a campaign in a city based on an annual tournament held in a large colliseum, except this years prize included a powerful magical item. Each round was held in a different arena, and the PCs would have to go through different areas to get to the arena. The battles would be battle royale style between different representatives, including empires being represented. BETWEEN rounds, competeing governments would hire assasins, and other teams would have "accidents," and the PCs would make temporary alliances with other teams, and their would be local gang wars in the city, and the big gangs had teams in the tournament. The PCs would be hired by some enigmatic rich guy.

I had designed a massive, 7 mile city that was based around 4 coliseums, my PC's started at a distance and were working their way to the city, the campaign fizzled out before we arrived. Your idea is what I was hoping we'd get around to. Very cool.

 

[RUMBLETiGER]

I designed a mini quest where, in the course of traveling, the PC's stumbled upon a crypt with undead. They wound their way though, facing perils, traps, puzzle doors, and various undead. A Vampire spawn appeared to promise a vampire at the end. They got to the final room, after buffing up cautiously opened the coffin, to find a dead, staked, burned, decapitated corpse inside. The Vampire had been slain a long time ago, and the undead they fought were just remaining rabble.

They were kinda pissed, but realized the vampire has 3 useful magic items on him, so they walked out pretty happy at the end. I forget what the ring did, but my players got a lot of use out of it.

 

[xigbar]

Yeah, Cityscaping is hard todo. We designed ours to be Port City, along a thin strip of land barely connecting two continents. The surrounding area was swamp and forest, each having an arena. The other two were an underground one in the sewers, and the main one in the center of the city, where the preliminaries were held. Only the rich could afford seats, but it was "broadcasted" via a projected Arcane Eye. The farther towards the center of the city was wealthier and had big shops and schools, and government buildings, and the harbor. Farther out are the slums, which slowly became a maze of small connected houses, and Venician waterways to travel around. There was alot of rooftop combat, and getting caught between a gangwar between Lizardmen and Humans.

We called them the Cruds and the Blips.

 

[lordxaviar]

I had designed a massive, 7 mile city that was based around 4 coliseums, my PC's started at a distance and were working their way to the city, the campaign fizzled out before we arrived. Your idea is what I was hoping we'd get around to. Very cool.

awesome... you going to print/pdf soon?