Making a Cruise ship into a megadungeon

[Baron Opal II]

I am not sure why it is awesome. Can you explain to me what, from the player's point of view, is awesome about a factory?

You've seen Leverage, surely? It had a number of scenes filmed at the old hydroelectric plant at Bonneville Dam.

Tanks, small to massive. Pipes of metal, plastic, and glass of all sizes running all over the place. Stairs running along walls to catwalks and trapdoors. Large diameter drainage pipes turning into tunnels leading to the river. Cables coming out of walls to run along guides to electric motors the size of small cars.

Things to hide behind, investigate, shut off, turn on, find the controls for, spaces to crawl through.

Good grief, what is not awesome about a factory?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Hmmm…some sources not yet named you could mine for ideas:

Deep Rising
Doctor Who “Voyage of the Damned”
Star Trek “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky"
Morbus Gravis
The Starlost
Virus

All are Sci-Fi of some kind, but have aspects that could easily be translated into a fantasy campaign.

That said, I share some of Umbran’s concerns. The idea of a group outside the ship’s chain of command ”going adventuring” would be problematic.

Besides that, while a cruise ship is large, they’re not so big that they could support a true megadungeon, IMHO. Their hull and bracing take up a significant amount of their volume. And their interior architecture is relatively linear and repetitive, except for specialized spaces like dining halls, theaters/auditoriums, etc.

OTOH, using such a ship as a mobile base of operations upon which occasional adventures occur? VERY doable.

 

[AnotherGuy]

I'm starting to think that the best thing is to take an island in each major ocean and make it a repair base. That way the ship can appear anywhere based on story needs.

and

Deck 18 - Bridge/Island Level
- bridge at the stern that is above everything.

Deck 17 – Sea Horse Level / Wizard tower
- Small island is off to the starboard and isolated from the rest of the ship when magic goes wrong

I'm not understanding you here. What do you mean the ship can appear anywhere and how is the bridge and sea horse levels islands?

I was thinking re raw materials and such, instead of them being ferried you could have portals to various locations allow the ships residents easier access to the materials they need/require.

 

[Shades of Eternity]

I'm not understanding you here. What do you mean the ship can appear anywhere and how is the bridge and sea horse levels islands?

I was thinking re raw materials and such, instead of them being ferried you could have portals to various locations allow the ships residents easier access to the materials they need/require.

okay a bit of explanation.

both comments refer to different things.

The first one is since manufacturing is relatively limited, I was going to setup depots/ship repair fascilities across the world.

Some of these will be Volcano Lairs (because cartoony villains and the georgraphic locations around the ring of fire)

the 2nd one is refering to an island on the ship.

according to the following link:

Glossary of nautical terms - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

island - The superstructure of an aircraft carrier that extends above the flight deck. A carrier that lacks one is said to be flush-decked.

What I was thinking originally was making deck 16 to mak it fairly aircraft carrier like, but with deck 17 and 18 sticking out of it for the bridge and wizard's tower respectively.

I might not be using the proper term for these.

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Jd Smith1 and Dannyalcatraz have been heard. I'm thinking that other then invasion patrols and acting as a home away from home, most of the naval capabilities will have to be drones (whether air, sea, etc). It's just not feasible to have a proper airforce even on a miltary grade cruise ship.

Plus they are easier to justify as low cr targets to fight.

but as for unfeasibly big, I remember a certain popular trilogy that started landing on a killer sphere and having to skulk about to find some royalty lady.

If anything, I'm scaling down.
***********************

 

[Shades of Eternity]

Man I got a question.

I'm finding tons of maps for boats, but they usually stop short of the lower decks.

It doesn't have to be based on a real ship, but what do you expect on the non-passenger decks?

 

[aramis erak]

A giant ship at sea that is like a city that makes its own stuff? Sounds like a great place to adventure.

A converted cruise ship is not a good city. It lacks too much.

Arcology at sea is something that many predict. THem looking anything like a cruise ship? not much.

And adding dungeons? Silliness, not awesomeness.

Edit to add: Oh, yeah, high tech dungeon craws has already been done: X-Crawl. Setting one on an anchored and immobilized abandoned or decertified one is not so silly in terms of the X-Crawl setting... but not combining a warship role converted from one.
I foundd X-Crawl a bit too silly to run. (Consider this: I have run MLP:TOE, and consider X-Crawl sillier than sentient+sapient telekinetic ponies... different pushes on the levels of disbelief.)

 

[AnotherGuy]

A converted cruise ship is not a good city. It lacks too much.

Arcology at sea is something that many predict. THem looking anything like a cruise ship? not much.

And adding dungeons? Silliness, not awesomeness.

Edit to add: Oh, yeah, high tech dungeon craws has already been done: X-Crawl. Setting one on an anchored and immobilized abandoned or decertified one is not so silly in terms of the X-Crawl setting... but not combining a warship role converted from one.
I foundd X-Crawl a bit too silly to run. (Consider this: I have run MLP:TOE, and consider X-Crawl sillier than sentient+sapient telekinetic ponies... different pushes on the levels of disbelief.)

I'm not sure what your input is intending to add here.

 

[Mannahnin]

Arcology at sea is something that many predict. THem looking anything like a cruise ship? not much.

Any suggestions for what an arcology at sea WOULD look like, or how it could be adapted to a dungeon? Some constructive feedback/your suggested alternate approach might be useful to the OP.

 

[Shades of Eternity]

Perhaps an explanation of why a cruise ship.

One of the reasons that the cruise ship is being built the way it is generally it's frowned upon lately writing outside your culture.

The O.R.C.A. ship builds a plug-and-play villain I can put anywhere there is a large body of water.

You have an adventuring party in China/Indonesia/Vancouver/Baffin Island/Cape of Good hope/etc. and suddenly these pirates/conquistadors/colonial invaders show up in a boat to play for keeps.

Suddenly you have an arch-nemesis without having to worry about cultural appropriation.

However, I'm willing to write about anywhere in Hodgepocalypse earth, but like a vampire, I need to be invited to do so.

(please somebody in South America, invite me in...my version involves cybernetic cultists and dinosaurs. )

 

[tomBitonti]

I think I may have found my map, once I tweak it accordingly.

Deck Plans | Oasis of the Seas | Royal Caribbean Cruises

Find Oasis of the Seas' deck plans. Learn about the ships size, staterooms, and public areas. The deck plans are great tools to understand the stateroom locations and get an idea of the cruise ship's layout before booking your cruise.

www.royalcaribbean.com

However, I got a question.

Would a retractable flight deck actually work on this ship? I do want at least the equivalent of hovercycles and at least some aircraft, but not sure how far I can push it before people lose their buy-in?

Failing that, I might just have a few small carriers (talking HMS Victorious (R38)) follow the ship as a sheep dog.

That theater space in the bottom rear looks great for a hover bay. Hovercraft don't need a flight deck, they need a ramp down to the water, like a marine assault ship, or a whaling ship.

All those decks with cabins lining the exterior seem great as drone berths. They each would have a porthole, so there is already exterior access.

Put a robotic replication facility in one of the large interior spaces, and have the thing be a drone based scavenger. If this is post-apocalypse / post collapse, there could be lots of hulks either rusting away on coasts, or on the sea floor.

Ah, let's say the drones require some wetware -- people in pods, like in the matrix, permanently wired in as drone operators. There are already bunks in the cabins which would convert nicely to operator pods.

The whole thing could be run by a conglomeration of AIs, remnants that decided to look after themselves instead of serving people. Maybe throw in a few control pods, and have some people partly in control.

There is a lot of room for interesting adventures: Being hired by the ship to go on a salvage run for scarce materials. Going to the ship to either barter for the release of one of the drone operators, or to simply break them out. Being hired by the ship to deal with particularly difficult parasites that have taken hold in a lower deck. Scouting out a hulk or two which are potential scavenging targets. Brokering a peace between the ship and nearby refugee colonies. Traveling to the ship to negotiate for it to construct medical or other supplies using its manufacturing capabilities.

TomB