D&D General Tell Me About Your Dungeon Centric Campaigns

[Reynard]

Then do it every X sessions you level up. Or, your level +1, so two sessions in you're 2nd level, and to hit 10th you need eleven sessions. There's plenty of workarounds. However you decide it's DM fiat and not under the control of WotC XP scheme.

What I don't want to do is arbitrarily level them by DM fiat, regardless of the pace. I want XP to be the motivation, so they get it for exploring etc... I just want a system that rewards the right things at the right pace with minimal effort.

Also, a pony.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Running the Doomvault right now, and one of my biggest complaints is how bloody confusing the "magic gates" are. Also, the random monster tables provided are largely creatures they have or will encounter somewhere in the dungeon, so there is not much originality.

One thing I did to make it more interesting; I added a time element, as if the PCs don't reach the phylactery vault by a certain amount of time, the baddies will break the spell blocking them from leaving/entering the dungeon, allowing them to essentially box in the PCs by using the gates themselves (this would be game over for the PCs essentially). This greatly reduces the amount of long rests the PCs are willing to take, which is key as they are well-balanced party of five level 12.

So I guess a lesson here is; invent a time element to ramp up the pressure. If your campaign is just entirely a dungeon I would use this occasionally in sections of it, not overall.

 

[Nebulous]

What I don't want to do is arbitrarily level them by DM fiat, regardless of the pace. I want XP to be the motivation, so they get it for exploring etc... I just want a system that rewards the right things at the right pace with minimal effort.

Also, a pony.

The pony prize should definitely be auto-level up.

Ok, then like someone else mentioned, finding treasure should equate to XP. You could probably cobble together something pretty simple then, based on the CR of monsters. I dunno. I'm not a fan of XP myself, it just seems like extra arbitrary bookeeping, but some people love it (I also suck at math)

EDIT - I do see the thrill in a dungeon based crawl where everything you find and fight is instrumental to leveling up. I could actually find that quite a lot of fun if it had a nice simple system

 

[Alzrius]

A few years ago, I ran a mega-dungeon campaign with Rappan Athuk (affiliate link) for Pathfinder 1E.

What struck me most was, given that the players knew about the module's high lethality rate, how they were ready to flee back to town at the drop of a hat. The "fifteen-minute adventuring day" was a real thing with them, making very little progress through the dungeon itself. They basically acted as if a TPK was waiting around every corner.

One consequence of this was that the NPCs in the nearby town became much more important. The PCs spent a lot of time there, and so got involved in local politics far more quickly than they would have otherwise. To that end, going into the dungeon because something happened involving a local NPC, rather than for reasons involving a PCs backstory or a simple treasure hunt, turned out to be far more motivating (especially if there was a time crunch, e.g. you wanted to rescue a kidnapped farmhand sooner rather than later).

Another thing I took from the experience was the need to keep the dungeon dynamic. If the PCs cleared a floor, it shouldn't stay cleared very long before something else moves in. That might sound counterproductive, but not wanting to fight through the same areas over and over was one of the stronger motivators for the PCs, encouraging them to go a little bit further before turning back.

 

[Nebulous]

On another note, Kobold Press is coming out with a 1st-10th level dungeon crawl this summer called the Scarlet Citadel

The Scarlet Citadel: A 5th Edition Dungeon of Secrets

A classic multi-level dungeon for 5th Edition gaming, a place of dungeon crawling, treasure looting, and morphing battle maps!

www.kickstarter.com

 

[Voadam]

I played in one where a ziggurat appeared within a dragon lord's realms with raiders periodically erupting out. The dragon put up a reward for investigating and removing the threat to his people. We discovered through exploration and deduction that the dungeon was a fey realm Great Hunt extension with things like a bugbear assassin and such running around. The set up gave a reason for the weird magical dungeon with a dark fey and predator theme and it was fun figuring stuff like that out.

 

[Voadam]

A thing we did in the dungeon based one (we were running Pathfinder) was the DM said every X games you will level up. So there was regular advancement at a pace he decided with no weird incentives or accounting. It was a number of years ago though and I do not remember the exact progression rate.

 

[Mannahnin]

Thanks for the detailed response.

I ran a test session of 5 torches deep and it did not really grab me, but that might have been due to trying to learn the system at the same time as wrangling an random, eclectic player group. I'll give it another look.

After running it for most of a year I'll opine that I'm not in love it, and have made some house rules, but that it's served the purpose I chose it for- it's a more accessible OS game for players accustomed to 5E or other WotC editions of the game. Parts of it are excellent.

 

[steeldragons]

An idea that I have begun, and dropped, and come back to, and dropped, and detailed out for 3 or 5 or 10 levels [of experience], and dropped/not had a a chance to use, and so on... over the years is to do a way way back "traditional" Dungeon crawl.

Begin with the "1 HD/1st level" creatures on the "first level" of the dungeon with your 1st level characters. The 2HD/2nd level threats on the next level, and so on and so on, to the very highest HDs/levels. Clearly there has to be some overlap and thwarting expectations...not every encounter can (nor should) be manageable or expected as a victory. Sometimes the 5HD monster like to find a place to hunker down (or is trading with or just passing through) the 3rd level. "Running away" and "rushing through" in the dungeon crawl needs to be a reliable (and sometimes desirable) way to "overcome" an encounter/particular challenge. Leaving places not thoroughly explored and/or still guarded, to come back to when you've acquired more power/levels/better magic or weapons, I consider a basic tenet of the dungeon crawl.

This means, of course, that each "level" of the dungeon needs to be large enough to accommodate the engagement of the characters to increase experience level every level (or level and a half, I usually accounted for).

Things to keep in mind:
Distance. There should be, the further you descend, huge amounts of distance where there is literally nothing. Not every creature on a particular level, let alone between levels (of the dungeon), need be aware and interacting with any other level/creature.

Resources. The further from the surface you get, the more rare and sparce resources will become. Not just food or finding objects made from trees/wood. But the replacement or repair of weapons, ammo, armor,...breathable air? Potable water? Light sources? Spell components !?! Finding and/or trading for any/all can become issues.

Dead Ends! Places/pathways that become too small or dangerous for the characters to get through and make them "go around"/find different ways to continue their descent.

Internal consistency/reality. The 10' x 10' room holding 15 ogres should not exist. With another 10' x 10' chamber, 10' down the hall, somehow housing an adult red dragon. Anywhere/any level. That can't happen.

TRAPS & HAZARDS! Don't forget the traps and hazards. There don't have to be room after cavern after room INHABITED by something. In constructed areas/levels, put traps -mechanical and/or magical, purposely placed or leftover from some ancient forgotten inhabitant/constructor- should supply at least some of the adversity. There should be environmental hazards throughout (at least some "level appropriate," if not avoidable): poisonous gases, crevaces, rock falls, cliff faces/underground canyons, subterranean rivers/lakes to produce areas for abundant life, plant and fungi stuffs/a.k.a. potential food sources (and/or aquatic and vegetative threats), lava/magma chambers, etc...

Themes. You can break up some monotony of "passage, cavern, monster, treasure, passage, cavern, monster, treasure, passage..." by having certain levels "thematically" connected. Maybe a certain level is all or mostly Undead because of the vampire/necromancer/lich in residence. A layer (once far enough down and high enough level) that is basically stepping into the Plane of Earth... or Fire... or Shadow. Maybe a particularly large and successful tribe (or a few aligned tribes) of Orcs (Gnolls/Trog's/Hobgoblins...Giants? sigh yes, Drow, too, if you wish. Whatever level apropos foes you need) have taken possession of the majority of two or three levels, all to themselves...and their 'pets'...and a critter or two they are scared of/leave alone/can't dislodge/communicate with. So, like, 2 or 3 (or 5!) levels could all be about the "Stronghold of the Red Orc King."Maybe there's a level or two of political intrigue with vying factions or tribes that want supremacy, befriending/allying/freeing the enslaved clan of dwarves/gnomes/pechs/etc... Maybe an entire "level" is actually a "Treasure Vault," massive engraved doors that require unfathomable magics to open (unless you find the key held five levels -up or down!), like walking into a city of gold, filled with traps upon traps upon traps, unimaginable wealth, and a single [probably immortal] "big bad"...the entire level actually made (and filled with treasure) not to protect the treasure/keep would-be thieves/robbers out, but to lure the creature and entrap/keep it IN!

So, I've always thought that would be a fun thing to do. Very Gygax. Very "original intentions" of the game...but not, generally (or ever in my personal experience), how the game was actually played by anyone I know/knew.

 

[jgsugden]

My recommendations:

• Milestone advancement.
• Storylines! There should be an overarching storyline that runs the length of the dungeon, as well as medium length storylines that cover several levels of advancement, and a lot of short term storylines that run from start to finish in less than three sessions. If there is no story, it gets ... boring.
• Don't give one theme to the entire dungeon. A fire dungeon gets real old if you're in it for too long.
• Consider multiple dungeons over one dungeon. It gives a change of pace and a palette cleanser every once in a while while you travel to (or locate) the next one.
• Make the dunegon(s) a character. Give it personality and make sure that it interacts with the PCs. If the campaign is about the dungeon, the dungeon can't just feel like a place - it has to have a goal and personality, even if it is not really alive. One massive dungeon I played in was set in the body of a dead god floating on the Astral Plane. The anatomy of the dead god influenced the beings living inside of it in different ways - and at the end, we realized this influence was not just an accent - it was a way for the God to brig himself back to life, slowly.
• Give the PCs a way to retreat from the dungeon and clear their head. If you're going to run Dungeon of the Mad Mage, give the PCs some reasons to take a short break and deal with life in Waterdeep for a bit.
• Give the PCs a reason not to hack and slash everything. Put two non-evil factions in the dungeon that are vying for control of something - factions where the PCs might agree with either (or both) sides in the conflict. Stop it from just being a murder hobo frenzy, and give it some depth.