D&D 5E Sell me on a megadungeon

[mikeawmids1]

If you are looking for a great megadungeon at a discount price, I recommend Gunderholfen by G Hawk. Great dungeon, great town, great surrounding environs, lots of tables, lots going on, awesome price point on Drivethru RPG. I bought it around the same time that I picked up Dwarrowdeep and I'm honestly more excited to run Gunderholfen, although it cost significantly less that DD. You would need to convert it to D&D5e, but most of the beasties can be lifted straight outta' the basic Monster Manual.

Also Stonehell and Castle Xyntillan are pretty great, and perhaps not so widely known, although both deserve great praise.

 

[Dax Doomslayer]

Because I am impulsive, i went ahead and bought Rappan Athuk 5E. I have been meaning to run this for years and finally have an opportunity.

Since it isn't available for Fantasy grounds, though, I am going to have to figure out what the best way to run it is. I am inclined to just use Zoom and see how it goes. Does anyone have any thoughts on the subject?

FYI Reynard, in the event you didn't know, someone is in the process of preparing this to be sold in Fantasy Grounds. Here's the URL to the thread: Rappan Athuk for 5e. Post #200 gives a status update.

 

[Reynard]

FYI Reynard, in the event you didn't know, someone is in the process of preparing this to be sold in Fantasy Grounds. Here's the URL to the thread: Rappan Athuk for 5e. Post #200 gives a status update.

Thanks for the update!

 

[Reynard]

So I am going old school with the Rappan Athuk start tomorrow: they are 1st level and they are starting at the entrance to the Mouth of Doom. Backstory has them having come through Zelkor's Ferry to get there, so they know they have a safe place to head back to after the first delve, and I send them The Legend of Rappan Athuk as well as 3 rumors each (2 for the main dungeon, 1 for the Mouth). We are using FG but I am not going to go to too much trouble at first: I bought the map pack so we have good maps but I want to avoid square by square play. I will take short breaks to put together encounters in FG on the fly as necessary, but there is a lot of exploration that won't need initiative rolls so I am not too worried about pacing.

 

[GMMichael]

Basically I want something easy to drop in and out of, with a relative diversity of rooms (minimal tedium ala Undermountain's many empty rooms). I would also like it to be interesting to read, with tons of tidbits of lore and mysteries. Unique creatures and magic items or artifacts are a plus.

I can send you my random dungeon generator. It's not much fun to read through, but it checks most of the other boxes. Just remember to listen to player banter: they're good at inadvertently suggesting what elements should carey over from room to room.

 

[Mercurius]

I can send you my random dungeon generator. It's not much fun to read through, but it checks most of the other boxes. Just remember to listen to player banter: they're good at inadvertently suggesting what elements should carey over from room to room.

My group is on indefinite hiatus right now, but I wouldn't say no to that, thanks! Is it a PDF?

 

[GMMichael]

Excel. To make the randomization (formula) even easier.

 

[Reynard]

So I am going to use Gold=XP for this Rappan Athuk run. I need to know what are good uses for that money to keep the PCs poor, at least for the first few levels before they start pumping money into Castel Whatsitcalled. Training? Upkeep? Carousing?

 

[not-so-newguy]

So I am going to use Gold=XP for this Rappan Athuk run. I need to know what are good uses for that money to keep the PCs poor, at least for the first few levels before they start pumping money into Castel Whatsitcalled. Training? Upkeep? Carousing?

Also money to buy supplies for creating items like potions of healing and to scribe scrolls.

 

[Reynard]

First session of Rappan Athuk included finishing chargen for those that hadn't, explaing my GMing philosophy re: old school and other "paperwork" so we only got a few rooms in.

Players are leaning pretty heavily on skills, especially perception, during exploration. That's okay but I am trying to reinforce investigation where appropriate and am trying to give them complete descriptions where rolls shouldn't be necessary.

They chose a direction that didn't include traps so we haven't dealt with those yet, but we will. They are about to have their first major faction interaction and I am really curious to see how that goes.

I am interpreting my job as staying as out of the way as possible and letting the PCs just explore and interact as much as they want.