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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 7816060" data-attributes="member: 59082">You don't have to design the whole thing before playing, but can build it level by level - especially if you include some sort of story device in which deeper levels aren't "unlocked" until the PCs complete some task or quest on the current level.I'd also suggest using some version of a Random Dungeon Generator for inspiration. Even if you have a tightly thematic megadungeon, you will still get ideas for how to fill out each room, chamber, cavern, etc. And scour over other megadungeons, steal elements you like. I think the most important thing is to mix it up - make the levels, rooms, chambers different and diverse. Make the entire structure have cool and interesting features. Give the players the sense that they don't know what's around the next corner, rather than always the assumption of the same "another room, another monster." Maybe they stumble upon a deep hole that seems to have no bottom; or a giant cavern of luminescent lichen that has psychedelic (visionary) properties and wants to lure them lotos-like into an immortal stupor; maybe they encounter oozes and slimes, goblins and troglodytes, drow and duergar exploratory parties, an ancient but kind old red dragon, a group of githyanki on a secret mission for their queen, deep gnomes enslaved by a mind flayer, etc etc.Oh, and even if it is just a sprawling hack-and-slack fest, make sure is story - underlying themes, history, legends, myths. Maybe there are layers upon layers of history - that the structure itself was created thousands of years before by some unknown lost race that is believed to be extinct (or is it?). Maybe a crazy wizard commandeered it a hundred years before for his or her experiments (sound familiar?). Maybe there are factions of Underdark races vying for control, but also all seeking some kind of artifact. Maybe a famous adventuring party disappeared twenty years previously. Or take a different approach and have the PCs start at the "bottom," and have to fight their way out, level by level.Have fun with it, and use your own sense of wonder as your guide. Build a megadungeon that you yourself would love to explore (as a PC, of course!). Oh yeah, and make sure there are always stray ends...passages left unexplored, if only hinted at. That sense of "Terra Incognita" brings a crucial element of mystery to the environment, and will help inspire the PCs to continue exploring.</blockquote>

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