D&D General West Virginia Mine Wars as the rough basis for a campaign

[Grantypants]

I had what seems like a really cool idea. I was wondering if anyone has done something like this before?

I want to do a megadungeon delve loosely based on the West Virginia Mine Wars. So it's a relatively standard underground megadungeon along the lines of Castle Greyhawk or Undermountain. The difference here is that at the surface there's a company that has claimed ownership of the dungeon and all it contains. They've hired adventurers to systematically clear each level and bring everything of value to the surface. Conditions for the adventurers are roughly equivalent to conditions for Appalachian coal miners in the early 1900s. The company treats the adventurers terribly, because they can. The company owns the town, the housing, and all the stores for miles and miles, and they're the only game in town if you want to earn a living. When some adventurers start asking for better working conditions, the company cracks down brutally, throwing them out of their homes, blacklisting them from any company stores, and openly murdering anyone advocating for a union. The adventurers

PCs start out broke, deeply in debt to the company store. PCs have two main choices. They can fight monsters in the megadungeon and gain XP but that also means they're collecting loot that the company will take from them when they leave the dungeon. Alternatively, they can try to organize workers on the surface and find ways to circumvent company control, but that's also risky. The company guards are too powerful to take on in anything remotely close to a fair fight, and they don't tolerate dissent.

Despite being based on history, this is still an extremely political adventure/campaign. I don't have the free time or inclination to get it into a publishable state, so I'm not worried about those sorts of considerations. I just think it's a neat idea that thematically fits D&D, especially the more steampunk elements. What do you think?

 

[pogre]

We used it as the basis for a skirmish miniatures game we ran at cons for a few years, but I like the rpg angle you are talking about.

We added a lot of fun and goofy elements to the game that were VERY ahistorical.

 

[Dungeonosophy]

To mix it up a little, perhaps the characters could sometimes get away from the grind, for excursions out into the mountains. The Silver John series is an inspiring source for Appalachian fantasy:

Silver John - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Not that we're expecting you to design and publish the ultimate Appalachian Fantasy RPG!

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

Sorry, no. Country roads take me home to Tennessee or to Michigan, rather than to West Virginia. It just seemed like such an interesting combination of history and fantasy that I thought for sure someone else had beaten me to the punch.

I'm also a Michigander who moved to Tennessee... and then, oddly enough, had sons with a woman from Bloody Harlan KY.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

For an adventure plot, could take John Sayles' excellent film Matewan: Matewan - Wikipedia
Was filmed in a "ghost town" near where I live. The film's narrator, Kent Lilly, is a family friend.

Ken Jennings recommended that to me when we'd talked about Harlan County USA.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

To mix it up a little, perhaps the characters could sometimes get away from the grind, for excursions out into the mountains. The Silver John series is an inspiring source for Appalachian fantasy:

Silver John - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Not that we're expecting you to design and publish the ultimate Appalachian Fantasy RPG!

I'd totally buy that. I also recommend the Old Gods of Appalachia podcast ymmv

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I could see this working for Eberron, with House Tharashk being the owners of a dragonshard mine in the Shadow Marches. Maybe the megadungeon below is an ancient Dhakaani ruin or an abandoned base for part of the Cult of the Dragon Below that was founded during the war between the Dhakaani and Daelkyr or the Orcs and fiends from Khyber.

 

[Stormonu]

Had to read up a little bit on the mine wars to get the gist of this.

My initial thought had been two companies/mines fighting underground for resources, and I think that’d bring an interesting twist. Two huge castles under different leadership, with extensive dungeonworks, dug for resources with the entry points within the castle’s bounds. A long time ago their expansive underground networks met, only to reveal an even more extensive natural system that extended into the under dark. Both sides have been spelunking into the third as well as shoring up and expanding their own dungeonworks.

PCs have either gotten themselves deep into debt or are merecenaries who are given “patrol” duties to hunt monsters or enemy raiders, supervise work crews to/from dangerous areas, or explore new or abandoned mineworks and recover goods.

There would actually be three major forces at work - two rival surface political parties at odds with one another (Something akin to Alien’s Weyland-Yutani Corporation) and a third (or more) force that constitutes the ancient races of the under dark realm that has been unearthed.

A little different than the original premise, but there would still be a lot of opportunity for delver rights vs. company greed, mixed in with other elements that could add some interesting twists to the constant delving.

 

[Blue Orange]

This is really f***ing awesome. (And I'm from New York!) It's a forgotten bit of history, and certainly puts a new spin on dungeon delving!

There once was a union mage, she never feared the rage
Of goons and gnolls and company trolls and the rotten paladins who made the raid.
She went to the union hall when a meeting it was called,
And when the ogre boys come 'round
She always stood her ground.

 

[Grantypants]

Just to make sure we're on the same page the PCs are intended to take down the mining company as the main boss?

The mining company is going to be the main antagonist organization, but it's too big to take down in a single boss battle. If the players want to go that route, they certainly could focus the campaign on breaking the company, but they're gonna have their hands full with just the one dungeon.

I could see this working for Eberron, with House Tharashk being the owners of a dragonshard mine in the Shadow Marches. Maybe the megadungeon below is an ancient Dhakaani ruin or an abandoned base for part of the Cult of the Dragon Below that was founded during the war between the Dhakaani and Daelkyr or the Orcs and fiends from Khyber.

The steampunk/magepunk aesthetics of Eberron are perfect for this. I'm back and forth on whether I want to set this in an established campaign setting like Eberron or if this would be better if I leaned even harder into the Americana aspects.