The Dungeon Rumble

[Stormonu]

For a local Con a few years ago, I put together an event I called "The Dungeon Rumble". It started as a very simple idea - Build a 15th level character, and kill all the other characters (like you) who are in the dungeon. Now, I did it for 3E, but it actually came from an annual event a local group I knew did back in 1E. It should pretty much work for any edition.

Though it was a lot of work in the end, it was pretty fun (there were some hilarious kills and imaginative builds for the dungeon - one was a troll grappler whose primary weapon was a bag of devouring, for example). I threw a few wrinkles into the dungeon to make things interesting so it wasn't just a straight slugging match. There were a couple of token monsters (about 6 levels/CR below any individual) and some traps laid around to make things a bit more interesting.

The RP "Explanation" for the Rumble....
[sblock]
By order of his Celestial Transcendency, the Overking of Aerdy, Grand Prince Ivid the V commands your appearance and attention before his court of justice to deliver sentence to the miscreants before me.

By the orders of the Grand Prince, upon the review of your crimes, each of you has been sentenced to death. The Grand Prince finds your crimes too heineious and numerous to list here and knowing the truth of your actions and intents, finds you guilty of that which you have been imprisoned and condemned for. However, the mercy of the Grand Prince is as great as his boredom, and for that he has offered unto you a chance to prove your worthiness to himself, and in so doing, stay his hand of execution and receive the exhalted post of Lord High Executioner to the Grand Prince’s will.

Therefore, you are to be transported to the Grand Prince’s dungeon, whereupon each of you shall engage in armed combat against your fellows. The lone surviving victor of the battle shall be brought out to join the Grand Prince in the position of Lord High Executioner.

The Grand Prince has laid down the following rules concerning his dungeons into which you shall enter.

1) You shall be accorded gear according to 1/2 the monetary value from what was seized upon your person at your capture at the hands of the Royal Guard.
2) In his generosity, Grand Prince Ivid the V shall grant you the fiend-seeing power of his throne, allowing you sight to monitor the entirety of the dungeon and its occupants, in the same manner he viewed your acts of lawlessness and was thus able to deliver justice unto you
3) The Grand Prince Ivid the V shall watch the proceedings from his Malachite Throne. Those who dawdle within the dungeon or seek to avoid bloodshed shall have the Prince’s justice administered to them directly and without delay

[FONT=&quot]Know that you, criminals, shall not be the lone occupants of the dungeon. A mere thirty seconds after your arrival, the prized pets of Grand Prince Ivid the V shall likewise be brought to the dungeon to challenge your worthiness to stand beside the Grand Prince.[/FONT]

Further, know that the dungeons of the Grand Prince contain dire traps designed to kill the unworthy and the foolish. Likewise, the power of the Malachite Throne wanders the halls of the dungeon and shall have unexpected effects upon your person. The worthy shall use the power of the Malachite Throne to his advantage, while the unworthy shall see the power of the Throne as their doom.

Now, by order of the Grand Prince, go forth and do battle. To the victor, long life, and death to all traitors before the Grand Prince.

Signed and sealed by Grand Prince Ivid the V, the fiend-seeing, Overking of Aerdy, Archduke of Ahlissa,, Idee and Sunndi; Suzerain of Medegia; Commander of the Bone March; Lord of the Sea Barons; Protector of Almor and Onnwal; Hetman of all the Aerdi; Foe of Iuz and the Scarlet Brotherhood; etc., etc.

[FONT=&quot]Grand Prince Ivid the V[/FONT]


[/sblock]

The Rules, as they were used for the Rumble (3.5)
[sblock]
Rules:
One 15th level character (HD + Class Levels + Level Adj = 15), plus animal companion (Ranger, Druid) or bonded mount (Paladin). You can NOT take the Leadership feat or have on hand other NPC allies, such as from a Planar Ally spell. You CAN summon monsters while in the dungeon.
32 point ability score build (see DMG page 169) – apply race, level and magic item ability modifiers AFTER base ability scores are generated
Max hit points for 1st level, average hit points for all additional levels/HD. Hit point averages by die type: d4: 2.5, d6: 3.5, d8: 4.5, d10: 5.5, d12: 6.5
All official, non-campaign specific 3.5 D&D books by WotC are legal (No Eberron, Forgotten Realms, Ghostwalk, Ravenloft, Dragonlance campaign specific books allowed. Note: Arms & Equipment, Book of Exalted Deeds, Book of Vile Darkness, Epic Level Handbook, Psionics Handbook* are 3.0 books, and not allowed). *Expanded Psionics and Complete Psionic are allowed. UNEARTHED ARCANA is not allowed.
100,000 gp starting gold. No single magic item can cost more than 50,000 gp. If you take item creation feats, you may build standard magic items for your character for ½ market price. Wands and Staffs may be purchased partially charged (divide cost by 50 to determine cost per charge). NO CUSTOM MAGIC ITEMS. On a separate sheet, list ALL items purchased (column 1) and price (column 2), and show final cost.
Spells with an XP cost CANNOT be used. If choosing spells with an expensive component, be sure to purchase the component!
No single attack can deal more than 20d6 (120 damage). Character builds or items that can inflict more than this will be disallowed or capped at 120 damage max (This includes standard spells such as Harm, Disintegrate, Finger of Death and the like).

Special Rules:
Sundering: you can sunder items as normal. However, Ivid the V gets bored of watching people run around unable to hurt one another, so after 1 minute (10 rounds) he uses the magic of the Malachite Throne to return the sundered item to the owner (at 1/2 hp).

Stealing an item: You can steal items from others, if you have the audacity. As above, Ivid gets bored quickly, so after 1 minute (10 rounds) he uses the Malachite Throne to return the item to the owner.

Disjunction/Greater Dispel: Dispelled/Disjunctioned cast spells are gone for good. However, if you disjunction/permanently dispel a magic item on a character, it remains dispelled for 1 minute (10 rounds), then Ivid reverses the effect, restoring the item's magic.

Anti-Magic Field: Not Allowed

Any “permanent” or long-lasting magical effect applied to the dungeon or an opponent (including level drain, ability drain/damage, wall of stone, prismatic spheres and the like) last only 1 minute before they are dispelled. DM has discresion which effects will be negated; mostly any effect that deters or negates attacks against another individual WILL BE GONE AFTER 1 MINUTE.

WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT:
[FONT=&quot]A map of the dungeon is available at the Gamer Sanctuary, scaled at 1 square = 10 feet. All corridors are 10 feet tall and wide, made of flagstone (Hard: 15, 200 hp/10 ft.). Rooms have 30 foot high ceilings and each entrance to the room has a closable wooden door (Hard: 5, 15 hp, break DC 25 ) that has no lock. The central room has a 50 foot high ceiling and each entrance has a iron portcullis (Hard: 10, 60 hp, lift DC 25, break DC 28) that can be operated from inside or outside.

Characters will arrive one per room, all entering simultaneously, at the start of the dungeon. There are 12 rooms (not including the central room).

The dungeon will contain, besides the other players, a small number of monsters, traps, treasure and tricks.

A character slain or permanently rendered unable to participate in the dungeon is instantly teleported out, with all their gear (i.e., you can't loot the dead bodies - though you can "borrow" from unconsious foes [/FONT][/sblock]

Random Stuff in the Dungeon...
[sblock]
5 TREASURES

+1 weapon of speed
ring of protection +3
rod of empower metamagic
white pearl ioun stone (+2 insight to one ability score)

12 MONSTERS (4 in the dungeon at any one time)

1) 2 spider swarms + 1 medium spider
2) 10 zombie troglodytes
3) 5 jermelaine
4) hydra
5) 2 harpies
6) annis hag
7) behir
8) vampire spawn
9) will-o’-wisp
10) flesh golem
11) girallon
12) drider

4 TRAPS

collapsing floor (Reflex DC 20; 4d10 damage and pinned for 1d4+1 rounds)
scything blade (+15 attack bonus; 2d8 damage)
poison gas (Fortitude DC 18; 2d4 Con damage for 1 minute)
hold person trap (Will DC 15; hold for 5 rounds)


4 TRICKS

wish spell (50% works for someone else)
roving wild magic field
cause serious/heal serious field
transposition field
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Have you ever done this sort of "deathmatch" thing with your own group?

 

[Dice4Hire]

I have never done PvP in my games, but I have always wanted to do a group vs group dungeon.

Im never sure how big to make it,though. How big was your dungeon total, and how may characters id you have there?

 

[Stormonu]

Im never sure how big to make it,though. How big was your dungeon total, and how may characters id you have there?

The map fit on a single piece of graph paper - it was a cluster of twelve 15' square rooms with 3 entrances/exits apiece and a 50' square arena in the center.

I ran this twice - both times I had to limit it to 15 people so that no more than one person would start in the same room (with 3 people starting just around a blind corner in the halls just outside the arena). It took about 4-5 hours to run, and that was with the whole dungeon laid out in Dwarven Forge dungeon bitz (wish I took pictures) and minis.

I also had to do some fiddling with invisibility because that was the first thing everyone went for (I made a ruling people still had a general idea where their opponents were so their minis stayed on the battlemat, but the target got a 50% miss chance against directed attacks, improved evasion against area attacks and opponents were flat-footed if you couldn't somehow pinpoint the invisible individual).

 

[Stormonu]

I have never done PvP in my games, but I have always wanted to do a group vs group dungeon.

That'd be interesting too, I'm sure. I've done DM party of NPCs vs. PCs (as I'm sure many DMs have) but not PC party vs. PC party.

Another variant I was just thinking of was having multiple teams entering a dungeon and see which group can explore/clear the most of the dungeon out.

And then there's always Reverse Dungeon, where the players run the monsters and the DM runs the invading waves of heroes.

 

[Lanefan]

For a local Con a few years ago, I put together an event I called "The Dungeon Rumble". It started as a very simple idea - Build a 15th level character, and kill all the other characters (like you) who are in the dungeon. Now, I did it for 3E, but it actually came from an annual event a local group I knew did back in 1E. It should pretty much work for any edition.

This just flat-out rocks!

Consider the idea stolen for my next gonzo or all-star game, except they'll probably be using pre-existing characters...

Lanefan

 

[pogre]

I like this idea. I may have to steal it for our local con.

I do run a Reverse Dungeon like you mentioned. It's always a big hit.

Here's some pics of the layout and game from last month's con:

Reverse Dungeon Con Pics.

 

[thejc]

We've done similar things. A mini campaign was once based around a large dungeon like this. The PC's had their memories wiped. Although they retained knowledge of skills, and abilities thoug. It was supposed to be like a celestial "rehab/prison/training" deal. The only way to get out was to make it to "bottom" or defeat everyone else(ala highlander). Eventually it took on the form of said prison/rehab/training ground" but one that had been forgotten about. The PC's had to both work together and against each other.

Their main antagonist was an enlightened Iron Golem that somehow had been polymorphed into a half-elf(my world).

It was pretty fun two deaths stand out:

The barbarian almost single handedly taking down an advanced blackguard-fire giant. Only to have the ranger/assassin pc turn his poisoned arrows on them both when it was done to the nitty gritty hp wise.

The other was a Firbolb-Reaping Mauler(Prestige Class) he needed little in the equipment buy section so he bought a couple/few immovable rods and used them to grissly effect.

 

[pemerton]

Back in 1993 I ran something like this for my uni roleplaying group - using an AD&D variant I wrote up 20-odd PCs. The dungeon had 4 "starting" rooms and then a central room which could only be entered using keys found in the starting rooms. There was a thin plot rationale, but I can't remember now what it was. I do remember writing a short backstory for each PC, to try and seed some conflicts and alliances.

One of the starting rooms had a sphinx (we have a book of riddles for that), one some undead, one some demons, and one I can't remember. The central room had a dragon.

I had one GM running each room, with me overseeing the whole show, and then me and one of the other GMs looked after things when the action got into the central room. I remember that the GM running the undead room ran the lich and vampire according to standard AD&D rules rather than the monster descriptions I'd written up, which meant that players who started in that zone had no real hope of winning the competition.

The whole event ran for several hours, with players cycling in and out as they went to or came from classes. I think we saw more players through than we had PCs.

In the end the surviving PCs formed two parties. I can't remember now whether they killed the dragon first, and then fought it out between them, or vice versa. The PvP was a pretty dramatic climax.

Anyway, I remember it being a lot of fun at the time.

 

[Stormonu]

I like this idea. I may have to steal it for our local con.

I do run a Reverse Dungeon like you mentioned. It's always a big hit.

Here's some pics of the layout and game from last month's con:

Reverse Dungeon Con Pics.

Y'know, I think I've got enough dwarven forge I can build that dungeon.....

 

[aco175]

Years ago I ran in a event where you had partners/teams and each fought in several stock encounters leading up to the grand finale battle royale between all the teams. I remember there was 2 dms for the last fight, but it was still chaotic with everyone yelling first. In the end it was fun, mostly due to the giant foam arena with 5' grids on everything- stairs, walls, ceilings...

I also want to say that full groups went through the first part of the event and 2 got voted to move on to the final encounter, which was another event.