Megadungeons locale or setting?

[Von Ether]

Monte Cook is designing a megadungeon book for the second edition of cypher and proposes that megadungeons can be a setting in its own right.

I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product because I always enjoyed the gonzo nature of adventures in Numenera and this seems to be right up as it was inspired by Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.

 

[amethal]

I'm getting a very big "A megadungeon - but done right!" vibe from the "Monte Cooke explains" article. The article itself is short on direct quotes so perhaps it's the interviewer's interpretation, rather than the point Monte Cooke was trying to make.

Comments like "For decades, the idea of a “megadungeon” has been pretty straightforward: a massive, often punishing meat grinder that’s packed with monsters, treasure, and enough encounters to last months or even years of playtime." and "Old-school megadungeons were sprawling, combat-heavy gauntlets that you cleared out by defeating the Big Bad and taking all the loot with you as you left." seem like misrepresentations to me.

It's great that Monte Cooke is trying to make his megadungeon as interesting as possible. It doesn't mean all the past efforts were mere meat grinders.

 

[Gorgon Zee]

It's great that Monte Cooke is trying to make his megadungeon as interesting as possible. It doesn't mean all the past efforts were mere meat grinders.

A very obvious example is the Living Dungeon in 13th Age’s THE STONE THIEF. Much though I enjoy numenéra (I have run two campaigns using it), the company is still pretty traditional in terms of high-level design and I don’t expect their mega dungeon to be more differentiated from traditional forms than The Stone Thief.

 

[sevenbastard]

Im on the fence on this one. If it comes out and get good reviews maybe.

I think my worry is that its gimmick is it is made so it can be either Sci Fi dungeon or a Fantasy dungeon.

Id be more excited if it just picked one and focused to get that version perfect versus trying to do two things.

 

[Sacrosanct]

It's great that Monte Cooke is trying to make his megadungeon as interesting as possible. It doesn't mean all the past efforts were mere meat grinders.

Indeed. Heck, it's been almost 15 years now since I did Felk Mor, and while it definitely has elements of combat heavy sections, there are also sections were role-playing can totally bypass combat:

• An entire map where combat can be avoided because it's set around a conflict between two clans of kobolds ala West Side Story
• A huge subterranean cavern ecology with five different clans (orcs, mi-go, gnomes, lizard folk, dwarves.) where they have different relations with each other
• A large map of a zoo
• A large section centered around a trio of stone golems called "Lords of Rock" (you can probably guess who they were inspired by )

 

[GMMichael]

Locale.

Wait, where's the poll?

 

[CharlesRyan]

Just to be clear: the article's author said that people often associate older megadungeons with a grindy experience, so that's a reason to not be interested in Jewel in the Sky? Just trying to understand.

 

[aramis erak]

I see no reason a megadungeon cannot be a locale, but I don't think it's inherent that it's a locale, nor even that it's only one locale.

Then again, the only megadungeon I've used many don't consider a megadungeon: Out of the Abyss.

 

[MacDhomnuill]

I feel like the mega dungeon in best served as a setting. the vast majority of exploration, combat, role play is going to be happening in then dungeon with maybe a little in the support camp or near by town/village. nothing wrong having it as a local but in my humble opinion mega dungeons are really only going to work as the focus and primary area of the campaign.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's great that Monte Cooke is trying to make his megadungeon as interesting as possible. It doesn't mean all the past efforts were mere meat grinders.

Recent interviews do make it seem like he missed a lot of the OSR, but is belatedly catching up on it now.