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Tell Me About Your Dungeon Centric Campaigns
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<blockquote data-quote="Jack Daniel" data-source="post: 8191813" data-attributes="member: 694"><p>War stories, eh? Well, permit me to throw up some maps then. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>The first time I ever ran a mega-dungeon, I was still acclimating myself to the old-school play-style. I had been involved in the OSR and running Basic D&D for a number of years already at that point, but I hadn't quite grasped all the nuances or understood how old D&D was really supposed to work yet. I was still reluctant to award XP for treasure, so I gave out XP for number of dungeon rooms explored—which did indeed incentivize the players to explore the dungeon, but it didn't incentivize any particular behavior <em>beyond</em> exploration. So even though the PCs continually returned to the dungeon, their motive for doing so remained unfocused and kind of unsatisfying.</p><p></p><p>The dungeon itself (in its current incarnation—I'm presently running it for the third time over on rpg.net, and here's hoping that my online players don't stumble across this thread!) looks like this:</p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/ySAZSWT.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>The central conceit of the dungeon is that it was built by a mad wizard who performed all manner of weird magical experiments (sub-levels 2A, 2B, 3A, and 3B are <em>very</em> "funhouse"), but his crowning achievement was the invention of the <em>ethericite crystal, </em>a small fist-sized piece of pure, solidified magic that could be "slotted" into specially-made weapons, armors, rods, wands, etc. to give these items different and changeable magical properties. (Yes, it was a straight-up magicite/materia knockoff.) Moreover, certain whole dungeon levels were locked off by big magical doors with <em>n</em> number of ethericite slots in them, and so you needed to have collected so many of these crystals to access those levels (unless you found one of the secret ways into those levels).</p><p></p><p>Down on level 5 (in the original version of the dungeon) was a teleporter to Barsoom, because I was on something of a John Carter kick at the time; and I ran this dungeon for my younger brother and his college-buddies literally the summer before the <em>John Carter</em> movie came out. Which resulted in some interesting conversations several months later, when they went and saw that movie <em>after </em>having played in my campaign… <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/blush.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":blush:" title="Blush :blush:" data-shortname=":blush:" /></p><p></p><p>• • •</p><p></p><p>My second mega-dungeon campaign (which I've also run three times for different groups, although none of them have ever delved any deeper than level 5) was probably more successful. The dungeon itself is called Shade Abbey (if the name rings familiar, remember the first <em>Shining Force </em>game on the Sega Genesis?), and it looks like this:</p><p></p><p><img src="https://i.imgur.com/hsHqtQZ.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p>Shade Abbey is situated on an island called Shade Isle, which serves as a poenal colony for a kingdom across the sea, a place where they dump all of their unwanted criminals and political dissidents and other undesirables. The "prisoners" have built a small shantytown on the southern shore of Shade Isle (it was probably unconsciously inspired by the village of Seyda Neen from <em>Morrowind</em>, but whatever), and the campaign begins when the PCs are dropped off at this town by kingdom ships and left to their own devices.</p><p></p><p>Shade Abbey is about two days' hike north of the shantytown, and its upper levels are controlled by a seriously naughty word-up sect of priests and monks who are really, <em>really </em>into self-mortification and pain (probably unconsciously inspired by the Yuuzhan Vong from <em>Star Wars</em>, now that I think about it). Moreover, up on sub-level 0B is a massive magical construct called the "Soul Still," which these priests use in despicable fashion—they feed the souls of captured prisoners to the machine and use the distilled essence to create magical weapons and other items, which they then ship back to the kingdom populating the island with prisoners, fueling its militaristic and expansionist aims. This is sort of the first "big reveal" of the campaign.</p><p></p><p>The second reveal is that if the player characters find and fiddle with the Soul Still, they have a very good chance of blowing it up, and the explosion will probably take all of dungeon level 0 with it. (The upper levels of Shade Abbey are built into the side of a huge plateau or table-mountain called Thunder Table; if the Soul Still gets destroyed, there goes a big chunk of the mesa.) And the sudden and abrupt halt of shipments from the Abbey back to the kingdom will inevitably spark an invasion of Shade Isle by the very kingdom forces who transported the PCs to the poenal colony…</p><p></p><p>The last major reveal (and again, I've <em>never </em>had a party delve down deep enough to figure this out, because they always get involved with surface-world politics between the kingdom across the sea and other parts of Shade Isle) is that the dungeon itself is alive and hostile, basically a nascent evil god that hasn't reached maturity yet.</p><p></p><p>The dungeon itself works quite well (and has lots of interconnections between levels for free roaming and exploration), but Shade Isle itself will probably get some major revisions before I ever run this campaign again, because it has some problems with its geography that I've always been too lazy to fix. (Long story.)</p><p></p><p>Oh, and for this game I <em>did</em> switch to XP-for-treasure, and I'm never switching back. It <em>works</em>. It drives the players to do specific things in the dungeon: look for treasure, take risks, possibly fall for tricks/traps/illusions. It's what D&D was <em>designed for</em>, and it shows!</p><p></p><p>• • •</p><p></p><p>Anyhow, these are the two dungeons that I've actually run. I've got a couple more that are only sketched out or half-developed, but the one I'm working on next is called "Mt. Lučzenya," and it's going to be (for all intents and purposes) an "ancient aliens" complex recently discovered by miners dynamiting their way into a mountainside in a vaguely Siberia-esque frontier boomtown, in a setting where all of the fantasy elements are inspired by Slavic mythology. The dungeon itself is designed to be extremely interconnected, including things like water pumps and power stations that make whole new levels accessible or not, depending on how the PCs manage to manipulate the dungeon itself.</p><p></p><p>Any questions?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jack Daniel, post: 8191813, member: 694"] War stories, eh? Well, permit me to throw up some maps then. :) The first time I ever ran a mega-dungeon, I was still acclimating myself to the old-school play-style. I had been involved in the OSR and running Basic D&D for a number of years already at that point, but I hadn't quite grasped all the nuances or understood how old D&D was really supposed to work yet. I was still reluctant to award XP for treasure, so I gave out XP for number of dungeon rooms explored—which did indeed incentivize the players to explore the dungeon, but it didn't incentivize any particular behavior [I]beyond[/I] exploration. So even though the PCs continually returned to the dungeon, their motive for doing so remained unfocused and kind of unsatisfying. The dungeon itself (in its current incarnation—I'm presently running it for the third time over on rpg.net, and here's hoping that my online players don't stumble across this thread!) looks like this: [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/ySAZSWT.png[/IMG] The central conceit of the dungeon is that it was built by a mad wizard who performed all manner of weird magical experiments (sub-levels 2A, 2B, 3A, and 3B are [I]very[/I] "funhouse"), but his crowning achievement was the invention of the [I]ethericite crystal, [/I]a small fist-sized piece of pure, solidified magic that could be "slotted" into specially-made weapons, armors, rods, wands, etc. to give these items different and changeable magical properties. (Yes, it was a straight-up magicite/materia knockoff.) Moreover, certain whole dungeon levels were locked off by big magical doors with [I]n[/I] number of ethericite slots in them, and so you needed to have collected so many of these crystals to access those levels (unless you found one of the secret ways into those levels). Down on level 5 (in the original version of the dungeon) was a teleporter to Barsoom, because I was on something of a John Carter kick at the time; and I ran this dungeon for my younger brother and his college-buddies literally the summer before the [I]John Carter[/I] movie came out. Which resulted in some interesting conversations several months later, when they went and saw that movie [I]after [/I]having played in my campaign… :blush: • • • My second mega-dungeon campaign (which I've also run three times for different groups, although none of them have ever delved any deeper than level 5) was probably more successful. The dungeon itself is called Shade Abbey (if the name rings familiar, remember the first [I]Shining Force [/I]game on the Sega Genesis?), and it looks like this: [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/hsHqtQZ.jpg[/IMG] Shade Abbey is situated on an island called Shade Isle, which serves as a poenal colony for a kingdom across the sea, a place where they dump all of their unwanted criminals and political dissidents and other undesirables. The "prisoners" have built a small shantytown on the southern shore of Shade Isle (it was probably unconsciously inspired by the village of Seyda Neen from [I]Morrowind[/I], but whatever), and the campaign begins when the PCs are dropped off at this town by kingdom ships and left to their own devices. Shade Abbey is about two days' hike north of the shantytown, and its upper levels are controlled by a seriously naughty word-up sect of priests and monks who are really, [I]really [/I]into self-mortification and pain (probably unconsciously inspired by the Yuuzhan Vong from [I]Star Wars[/I], now that I think about it). Moreover, up on sub-level 0B is a massive magical construct called the "Soul Still," which these priests use in despicable fashion—they feed the souls of captured prisoners to the machine and use the distilled essence to create magical weapons and other items, which they then ship back to the kingdom populating the island with prisoners, fueling its militaristic and expansionist aims. This is sort of the first "big reveal" of the campaign. The second reveal is that if the player characters find and fiddle with the Soul Still, they have a very good chance of blowing it up, and the explosion will probably take all of dungeon level 0 with it. (The upper levels of Shade Abbey are built into the side of a huge plateau or table-mountain called Thunder Table; if the Soul Still gets destroyed, there goes a big chunk of the mesa.) And the sudden and abrupt halt of shipments from the Abbey back to the kingdom will inevitably spark an invasion of Shade Isle by the very kingdom forces who transported the PCs to the poenal colony… The last major reveal (and again, I've [I]never [/I]had a party delve down deep enough to figure this out, because they always get involved with surface-world politics between the kingdom across the sea and other parts of Shade Isle) is that the dungeon itself is alive and hostile, basically a nascent evil god that hasn't reached maturity yet. The dungeon itself works quite well (and has lots of interconnections between levels for free roaming and exploration), but Shade Isle itself will probably get some major revisions before I ever run this campaign again, because it has some problems with its geography that I've always been too lazy to fix. (Long story.) Oh, and for this game I [I]did[/I] switch to XP-for-treasure, and I'm never switching back. It [I]works[/I]. It drives the players to do specific things in the dungeon: look for treasure, take risks, possibly fall for tricks/traps/illusions. It's what D&D was [I]designed for[/I], and it shows! • • • Anyhow, these are the two dungeons that I've actually run. I've got a couple more that are only sketched out or half-developed, but the one I'm working on next is called "Mt. Lučzenya," and it's going to be (for all intents and purposes) an "ancient aliens" complex recently discovered by miners dynamiting their way into a mountainside in a vaguely Siberia-esque frontier boomtown, in a setting where all of the fantasy elements are inspired by Slavic mythology. The dungeon itself is designed to be extremely interconnected, including things like water pumps and power stations that make whole new levels accessible or not, depending on how the PCs manage to manipulate the dungeon itself. Any questions? [/QUOTE]
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