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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7815978" data-attributes="member: 4937">Unfortunately, try as I might, I can't find the thread where someone asked about how to make a dungeon interesting and we brain stormed up a megadungeon with multiple layers.Anyway, some advice...Generally speaking a megadungeon will follow a certain pattern. There is a Haven near by where the party can rest in relative security and get basic services like refills of consumables, cleric healing (including importantly remove disease/remove curse) and identification of magical objects. Secretly, some faction in the Haven has nefarious plans, but they won't reveal them just yet. There are one or more mentors, quest givers, or guides in the Haven that can reveal lore about the megadungeon to get the party going in the right direction, and help out when they get stuck. Quite often these turn out to be exactly the same as the faction with the nefarious plans. In the Haven are also links to a variety of sidequests, some of which may go to small dungeons or encounter areas unrelated to the megadungeon, and others may be quests in the dungeons themselves. Some of the most persistent quest givers early on are almost always the nefarious faction, which is often a cult trying to recover the Foozle or resurrect/free the Big Bad. Eventually, uncovering that the nefarious faction is nefarious may lead to side quests in the Haven itself, or in a nearby town. These side quests help break the monotony of delving in the megadungeon.There is a ruined level or levels on the surface representing some sort of castle or mansion. Those ruined levels have been occupied by some sort of demi-human tribe, which will end up being fairly long running antagonists of the party. There is an extensive basement/crypt/dungeon/arcane laboratory beneath the ruins, often divided in to multiple sublevels. The demihuman tribe may control part of these sublevels, but typically have walled off other parts of it out of fear of 'the wierdness' that controls much of the rest. 'The weirdness' and other hints provides clues to some ancient evil located deeper in the dungeon.The basement level has several 'backdoors' or concealed exits/entrances that allow it to be accessed in a way that bypasses the demihuman tribe, and leads to various sublevels with varying levels of convenience. At least one of these entrances is blocked by 'the beast', a powerful predator feared by both the demihumans and the inhabitants of the haven.There are slave mines which is the primary economic activity of the demihuman tribe, and from which innocents can be rescued. Both the mines and the basement provide access to the Upper Caves.The Upper Caves are a maze of caverns loosely inspired by real world cave systems and containing a surprising number of large predators considering the relative lack of obvious food supplies. They are filled with hazards, dangerous terrain, and have magical weirdness in them. Very near the connection between the Upper Caves and the Basement level is the Ancient Vaults. These are the source of all the weirdness and evil in the area. Initially, they are sealed and the means to open them is beyond the ability of characters at the time they are likely to find them. All the best treasure and worst monsters are in the Ancient Vaults, and this is actually the ultimate goal of the campaign where the foozle is hidden and/or the Big Bad is imprisoned, but any attempts to penetrate them early on will quickly run into some encounter which can be fled, but which is clearly and obviously vastly beyond the CR of the party.Beneath the Upper Caves, usually accessible by descending The Chasm, is the Lower Caves. The Lower Caves represent the Lost World and is a dark fairy world filled with Impossible Things, and in classical D&D is part of the Underdark. The Lower Caves have a scale such that exploration of them essentially amounts to wilderness exploration. The Lower Caves themselves contain a number of villages representing different factions living in the lower caves, that can be won as allies with varying degrees of difficulty, thus providing a 'home away from home' for those exploring the lower caves. Often the villages have particular things that they want the PC's to do to maintain friendly relations with them, which sometimes is, 'Destroy the neighboring village', and often is 'Rid us of this thorn in our side' which can be anything from a troll to a dragon. The Lower Caves often have links to other areas of the Underdark in case the party wants to do further adventuring. If you want to be particularly helpful, the Lower Caves can also contain a Magic Portal, which allows quick travel between them and someplace on or near the surface. Occasionally, the Lower Caves contain The Lost City, which is a megadungeon within a megadungeon. For now though, one megadungeon is enough.</blockquote>

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