World's Largest Dungeon in actual play [Spoilers!]

[BlueBlackRed]

Does anyone have an estimate of how long in campaign time it'd take for a party to enter and then exit the WLD?

I'm going to be setting a time-limit that the PCs have but don't want to make it so short as to be impossible, or too long so that it's meaningless.

I believe it's listed somewhere in the WLD book as 2 years game time.

 

[jim pinto]

I believe it's listed somewhere in the WLD book as 2 years game time.

its easily 100 sessions if you hit all the maps

its easily 40 to 60 sessions if you take the shortest route
through the dungeon (A, B, C, G (edge), H (edge), L, O)

i can't calculate other variables because who knows how
long Region F will take.

as for a name to the dungeon, the celestial would just call
it, "the dungeon". for them, its the only one that was ever
built.

pulling a few names of out of his bag of tricks....

"Cremetoria"
"Apocolyptica"
"Infernicus"
"Betelgese"
"Google-plex"

no?

well... what rpg world would be complete without the "Shadowlands"



oh... i know... how about "Twinkle" because that sounds pretty tough.

right?

 

[Keska]

My WLD Campaign

I bought my copy of the WLD at DragonCon, read sections A, B and E, then jumped right in. My players are a dwarven rogue/cleric, an elven rogue/wizard, a human monk with the Vow of Poverty, and the guy who can't play anything "normal", who has a Tiny construct based off of one of his Warhammer mechs. The whole party is of neutral to goodly alignment and started at 2nd level. All four of the players have been gamers for many years, and are wise to the ways of dungeon crawls.

So far I've run 6 sessions, encompassing 4 days of game time. The group has covered about 2/3 of Reigon A, recruiting a sullen Turag (the cowardly orc) and the two lizardfolk. (A word of warning on those two: there are considerable errors in their stat block - most notably, the druid's attack bonus is higher than it should be, both of them have incorrect saves, and soem of the ranger's skill points migrated over to the druid. I myself didn't notice this until I went to put them on their own character sheets, with the MM and PHB as references.) They have made a noninterference pact with the kobolds (over the dwarf's grumbling), and are totally avoiding the troglodites, at Turag's hysterical insistance.

I won't go into too much detail, but here were a few things I thought were significant:

-- The elf sunk much ofher starting cash into a pendant of continual flame, which has saved the party's ass on many occasions.
-- The construct has a machine gun - and while providing him with ammo has literally *eaten* much of the party's metallic resources, it turns rat swarms into something less than a CR1 encounter. I have compensated, however, as the noise of his gun draws anything nearby to see what's making the racket.
-- The group met it's first lantern archon when the dwarf decided to haul down the skeletons from the walls and bless themthat they might find eternal rest. The archon promised to take them to the celestial garrison if they find out where the feindish animals are coming from and stop it.
-- Mapping is a BIG pain in the rear. I started out on our battlemap, but constantly erasing and redrawing got to be too irritating and introduced too many errors, so I have taken to simply adding to the graph paper map the PCs have been making. I feel like it takes out a lot of the suspense, tho.
-- I haven't needed to name the dungeon. No one in the party has ever asked it's "real" name, but they have dubbed it "the Hell of Endless Hallways" half in jest....
When I last left off, the party was just outside the room with the green glowy ring and the swarm of stirges (don't have the book on me, so I don't remember the room nuber offhand). It will be their biggest battle yet, and I'm looking forward to it as the monk's chance to shine inthis overly rogue-heavy group.

 

[The Goblin King]

-- I haven't needed to name the dungeon. No one in the party has ever asked it's "real" name, but they have dubbed it "the Hell of Endless Hallways" half in jest....

Heh, I was thinking the exact same thing.

 

[Demonix]

http://www.rpgmp3.com now has session 5 for download - the players are now 3rd level. Well worth a listen.

 

[doseyclwn]

I may be in for a Total Party Kill on Wednesday, folks.

So I used Twofalls suggestion about having a trapped hound archon in one of the rooms. It went over really well. The party decided to chill and wait for achsyxx to come and taunt him again, then the party killed him. Here's where the problem is: They have decided to head straight to the garrison in section E to help get him out, and they are only 2nd level. Well, I did warn them. Anyone else get a TPK yet?

I also had some fun with player bickering. That was fun. Maybe this will teach them a little humility. I'm toying with the idea of having a Lantern Archon pop in and warn them, but maybe I should just let them find out (hehehehehehehehehe)

 

[Gilladian]

dividing up the dungeon

I'm seriously thinking about pulling section B out and using it as a standalone adventure. If so, what changes would you suggest I make? What are the loose plot threads, how much access to the surface, by what groups and where? Are there any sections that could/should be omitted?

I'm thinking that it will be in an area of cold, rugged mountains in a cold/temperate part of the world. Orc or other demihuman races mayl be dominant on the surface, but I'm not sure.

Gilladian

 

[jim pinto]

I'm seriously thinking about pulling section B out and using it as a standalone adventure. If so, what changes would you suggest I make? What are the loose plot threads, how much access to the surface, by what groups and where? Are there any sections that could/should be omitted?

I'm thinking that it will be in an area of cold, rugged mountains in a cold/temperate part of the world. Orc or other demihuman races mayl be dominant on the surface, but I'm not sure.

Gilladian

since the most important plot point of the region is the goblin war, i would use all the traps and goblinoid encounters. i would remove the northern and eastern hallways and have the dungeon be some place the goblins moved into.

i would remove the extraneous monsters like the vargouilles and maybe use the ghouls as creatures that live at the "depths" of the dungeon and require appeasement.

otherwise, have the goblin war spill out into the surface world and add a few more bugbears and rebel goblins.

i'm not close to a copy of the book or maps, so i can't give much more advice than that at this point, but if you need more information, let me know.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

I may be in for a Total Party Kill on Wednesday, folks.

So I used Twofalls suggestion about having a trapped hound archon in one of the rooms. It went over really well. The party decided to chill and wait for achsyxx to come and taunt him again, then the party killed him. Here's where the problem is: They have decided to head straight to the garrison in section E to help get him out, and they are only 2nd level. Well, I did warn them. Anyone else get a TPK yet?

Nope, no TPK's yet. Almost though.
The group, while early in their 2nd level and still pretty pathetic in their teamwork skills, went from the western end of Region A's giant hallway (Room A49???) to the eastern end. Then they went into the room with the 6 oversized fiendish darkmantles. Well between their learning to look up, and me saying "You see the largest <bleep>ing octopus thing yet...and then another one...and another one...", they got their act together.
Somehow out of their usual chaotic actions, they did the best teamwork I'd seen them do in a long time. A potential TPK had turned into a meat grinder in the party's favor

But, as a DM, you have many tools at your disposal to prevent a TPK.
Just a few: (because I'm a nosey, know-it-all shmuck)
- Let them try. For as many times as my group has done something um... Forrest Gumpish, they've also done some amazing teamwork and tricks. Some groups just tend to work better when they know they're in a tough spot.
- Redirect them w/o forcing them. This may allow them to get some much needed equipment and experience before they get to their destination.
- Throw a minor, but nasty fight in their way as a "Taste of things to come." With a lot of emphasis on the idea that this was just a fraction of what they're in for. Not a good idea for pure role-playing groups though.
- Earthquakes. The tunnels to the region they're heading had recently collapsed in one of the WLD's frequent earthquakes. If you have done enough foreshadowing of the earthquakes, then this could be your best option.

 

[doseyclwn]

But, as a DM, you have many tools at your disposal to prevent a TPK.
Just a few: (because I'm a nosey, know-it-all shmuck)
- Let them try. For as many times as my group has done something um... Forrest Gumpish, they've also done some amazing teamwork and tricks. Some groups just tend to work better when they know they're in a tough spot.

I'm definitely gonna do that. Some of the players have proven on other occasions that they can come up with some great stuff. This is a chance for them to show it. I'm looking forward to see what they do.

- Redirect them w/o forcing them. This may allow them to get some much needed equipment and experience before they get to their destination.
- Throw a minor, but nasty fight in their way as a "Taste of things to come." With a lot of emphasis on the idea that this was just a fraction of what they're in for. Not a good idea for pure role-playing groups though.
- Earthquakes. The tunnels to the region they're heading had recently collapsed in one of the WLD's frequent earthquakes. If you have done enough foreshadowing of the earthquakes, then this could be your best option.

Sort of a combo of all these things, I was gonna throw a bearded devil in to guard all exits from Section A. At 2nd level, that might make them think twice. Although since I'm only gonna put one there, it might not.