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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pour" data-source="post: 6072709" data-attributes="member: 59411">My campaign called for a non-traditional dungeon crawl in a portion of Ugoreth, the demon queen Oublivae's Abyssal realm, which I crafted as a true bottomless pit. They plane shifted into an infinite free-fall down the central tube of a shadowy vortex with hurricane winds and bolts of lightning thick as tree trunks. An Epically dangerous hazard in and of itself, the players struggled to stay together and dared the sheltering dungeons which were steadily plummeting through this eternal drop, in actuality the ruins of countless civilizations across countless worlds Oublivae had dragged kicking and screaming into oblivion. Occasionally, these dungeons would change pitch, sometimes turn completely upside down or vertical (requiring multiple maps), but boy was it fun. Enemies ranged a wide variety of  demons and maddened undead across several cultures (I used a Persian, Incan, and Eastern European series of thematic levels), the failed defenders of these many civilizations. NPC allies coming in the form of a few ghosts who recalled enough of their past to lend aid, and a pair of seraphim cornered by an overwhelming force who had boldly come to retrieve a missing archangel. My philosophy is if the rules don't suit a situation, alter the rules within the edition framework so that they do. I knew minions were going to be key if I wanted the level of gratuitous death necessary for a God of War-esque or Dante's Inferno-esque plunge into the worst dive in the setting. I played a lot with one, two, and three hit minions- in truth, 1-hit minions, then two-hit elites and three-hit solos. I allowed elites and solos their full range of abilities and immunities, just that if they were hit two or three times they were slain. I also vastly increased 1-hit minion damage in accordance with  the Nightmare Level damage chart posted by the fourthcore guys about a  year ago. Believe me, at level 24 it's needed.I think everyone agreed the changes were a rousing success. 1, 2, and 3 hit monsters were quite satisfying, especially adding a 'damage threshold', so elites and solos could die on the first hit IF a player dealt over X  damage in the single blow, thereby still making damage/power selection acceptably relevant (I wish I had a hard and fast formula for finding that number, but I sort of eyeballed it around half their RAW bloodied value). I also allowed automatic kills on crits to promote guts and blood choking halls up to their knees flavor (it came with a clause where they also had to describe their crit kills as savage as possible for the house rule to apply).  Oublivae herself was a real beeotch, with an aura that forced saves on magic items, failure equating to immediate destruction. Mundane items immediately deteriorated within the same aura. There was some frantic recalculating, and two players really hated the design paradigm, but most really were terrified by it (what's that about hitting them in their pocket books). It took everything they had to finally finish her, and that was after she fled from one dungeon to another, forcing the group to kind of rough it without some key items. Just great fun.Okay, so in review:1. Quick, Furious, Bloody Battles: Use 1-hit minions (increase their damage to Nightmare levels, or about their actual level in damage per hit), 2-hit elites and 3-hit solos (elites and solos have the use of all their normal powers and roll for their damages). Elites and solos can be killed in a single blow IF a player meets their damage threshold, usually half their bloodied value. Critical hits automatically kill IF the players also give you a little hack'n'slash description.2. Dynamic, Fascinating, Interactive Settings: Play up to 4e's greatest strength, the ability to produce some incredible set pieces with hazards, traps, moving/changing terrain, and then add a twist by changing that battlefield yet again on them. Keep them in awe, keep them thinking, keep them on their toes, but especially KEEP THEM MOVING. That said, don't be afraid to include dead-ends, harder and easier avenues to the same goals, and the occasional 'Oh BLEEP' moment, when like the big end boss decides to show up early for a few rounds, the entire dungeon begins to split apart, or something just huge, crazy, and terrifying that makes PCs want to run (and maybe they should).3. Interesting NPCs, Both Helpful and Harmful: No matter the dungeon crawl, there should be someone or something to talk to, deal with, aid, trick, or steal from. These NPCs usually become one of the most memorable moments of the crawls, and they also add their weight in plot gold when it comes to constructing the appearance of a living, breathing dungeon. I tend for semi-frequent, after or during every 2 or 3 big stretches of fighting, exploring, or disarming, but pepper to taste.4. Keep Your Finger on the Pulse, Stoke the Pacing, and Roll with It: This is my number one rule, but I put it as number four because it might not be everyone's. I know this sounds crazy, but I don't actually place specific encounters, hazards, or NPCs in specific places on the map. I drop the map, have my documents ready, and we go. I tailor the dungeon on the fly as players explore it, keying off their their predictions/fears (my most trusted resource, particularly when players think of better ideas than I do), their theories on internal logic of the places and story (another trusted source), and my own inspiration in the midst of running. Of course there are instances where, due to mapping, one room with a lava pool in it is obviously the lava encounter, but it's almost a 1 in 7 kind if situation where I'm bound to the map.</blockquote>

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