D&D 5E (2024) Thoughts on Infinite Staircase?

[QuentinGeorge]

Those levels were barely detailed. I remember a blue dragon.

The Goodman Games version fully detailed all the levels, keeping the sparse details of the original module and expanding them. (The dragon has a name, as does the vampire). My problem with this version is that Lost City is a megadungeon, and truncating it into a short adventure like they've done here makes it all end rather abruptly.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

I'm running through some of them now. After using The Lost City, I'm expanding the "Zargon Plot" using some of the guideance in 3e's Elder Evils, which provides some seeds for a campaign that revolves around Zargon's rise. I'm using that as the framing device for the other adventures, rather than the Inifinite Staircase, which I found kind of....bland, in the end.

So, like, the party was hired by Vanessa Mackelroy (from Elder Evils) for the initial expedition and, having completed that, is now rescuing Dorn from gnolls. The weather will start to turn. Then, we'll have Vanessa send them on to the next adventure in the series. When they return from that, they'll find the Juiblex cult and Vanessa missing. And so on, until they return to the Lost City for the big confrontation at the end.

Using some of the material from 3e's Sandstorm and 4e's Dungeon Delves, too, to add a bit of texture to the adventures in between the main ones.

I did a whole campaign with Lost City, utilising the Goodman Games hardcover, the Elder Evils supplement, and the prequel adventure from Dungeon, Masque of Dreams - which Wizards should honestly have incorporated for their own version.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

So it's taller than the real pyramid upon which it is based. However, I don't think it's meant to be in the middle of a flat plain.

The real pyramids where built in the middle of a flat plain. But they were partially buried in the sand from the end of the pharaonic period until the 18th century I think.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

My problem with this version is that Lost City is a megadungeon

I wouldn’t call it that. Given its octahedral shape, whilst level 5 is large, the other levels were quite compact. It was a large dungeon, but nothing like the size of Barrier Peaks, even the cut down version in Infinite Staircase.

The dragon has a name, as does the vampire

Susan and Bob.

 

[Zardnaar]

B4visnt a megadungeon imho. Its a large one though