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World's Largest Dungeon?
- Thread starter DaveMage
- Start date
Psion
Adventurer
I am a big fan of Undermountain and Greyhawk Ruins, especially to former. It's like the matterhorn of dungeons. It's almost more a setting than a dungeon, and I have done it a lot in the past.
At the same time, as I have grown older, I find I have less patience with big dungeons, and time constraints keep me from using them regularly. Heck, we spent like four sessions in the first of three adventures in a smallish module by necromancer games (Demons & Devils); by the time we were done, I was tired of it.
Undermountain was sort of made to let you set other adventures in. You do have a little leeway in that you can use gates to get your PCs in and out, but it always struck me as a bit tacked on and a bit of blatant fiat. If I were to entertain another dungeon as big as undermountain, I would like to have similar convenience to insert and extract players, but better explained and less "handwaving" in nature.
The ad copy brags that it has more encounter locations than undermountain. Okay, but undermountain's locations are detailed (often spanning multiple pages) and many are interesting. If the "encounters" in this books are a stat block and a paragraph of why they are in the room, that is not really saying much. And somehow, I doubt that many encounters can be detailed to the same level. (I think I'd have to do a bit of quick math, but a quick BOTE: IIRC, the undermountain core book is 160 pages. So ~1 encounter per page if their figures are accurate. Compare to 10x as many encounter in 5x as many pages. And also consider stat blocks are more detailed now. That leads me to beleive that the actual content won't be as high quality.
Anyways, there still might be something worthwhile there. The promises of conflict built into the backstory sound useful.
I guess I'd really want to know: who is writing this? Some big names might persuade me that it is likely worthwhile more than others. But then, I don't see many big names spending this much time on such a big project.
At the same time, as I have grown older, I find I have less patience with big dungeons, and time constraints keep me from using them regularly. Heck, we spent like four sessions in the first of three adventures in a smallish module by necromancer games (Demons & Devils); by the time we were done, I was tired of it.
Undermountain was sort of made to let you set other adventures in. You do have a little leeway in that you can use gates to get your PCs in and out, but it always struck me as a bit tacked on and a bit of blatant fiat. If I were to entertain another dungeon as big as undermountain, I would like to have similar convenience to insert and extract players, but better explained and less "handwaving" in nature.
The ad copy brags that it has more encounter locations than undermountain. Okay, but undermountain's locations are detailed (often spanning multiple pages) and many are interesting. If the "encounters" in this books are a stat block and a paragraph of why they are in the room, that is not really saying much. And somehow, I doubt that many encounters can be detailed to the same level. (I think I'd have to do a bit of quick math, but a quick BOTE: IIRC, the undermountain core book is 160 pages. So ~1 encounter per page if their figures are accurate. Compare to 10x as many encounter in 5x as many pages. And also consider stat blocks are more detailed now. That leads me to beleive that the actual content won't be as high quality.
Anyways, there still might be something worthwhile there. The promises of conflict built into the backstory sound useful.
I guess I'd really want to know: who is writing this? Some big names might persuade me that it is likely worthwhile more than others. But then, I don't see many big names spending this much time on such a big project.
Myrddin ap Taliesen
First Post
Dark Jezter said:Heck, if this book is as cool as I hope it will be, I want to see it turned into a computer game using the Temple of Elemental Evil Engine.
Hopefully without the insane number of bugs present in ToEE
d4 said:
Hopefully not everything is hostile... that would make it almost purely hack and slash. Not that I'd mind DMing some 100+ lvl PCs... think of all the fun that could be had combining the Draconomicon with Deities and Demigods and Savage Species , with a touch of Unearthed Arcana for badies .
Kallyrstarlin
Advanced Red Great Wyrm with Major Vampire Bloodline.
Level 20 Paladin of Slaughter/ level 10 bloodline/ level 10 Disciple of Ashardalon/ Divine rank 15.
You have a baddy here with a CR of 95... nothing to be scoffed at.
Think of the fun of playing out such an encounter .
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Myrddin ap Taliesen
First Post
sorry. mispost
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IMO, megadungeons always seem like a really cool idea, until you find that in actual play they get really boring...too much of a good thing. In past attempts, I think that the author(s) have run out of ideas quickly, and settle into a rut of quantity over quality...and it shows. On top of that, a real campaign offers a variety of kinds of adventures - like a banquet....a megadungeon only offers a force-feeding of the same "meal" over and over again.
If they were trying to create a true campaign-in-a-box, without pure railroad, then that'd be something worth writing home about, I think...
If they were trying to create a true campaign-in-a-box, without pure railroad, then that'd be something worth writing home about, I think...
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Trainz
Explorer
It's impossible to have 1600 encounters in 800 pages, so here's how they'll probably do it:
Stat out some rooms (more or less half of the encounters), and use generic encounter descriptions for the rest.
For example, lets say they have 26 generic rooms numbered A to Z. Generic room E could be a room with 3 orcs for example.
Dungeon rooms 14, 78, 132, 567, 570, 598, 1093, 1130, 1450 and 1543 could have for description: "Generic room E".
Just a thought.
Stat out some rooms (more or less half of the encounters), and use generic encounter descriptions for the rest.
For example, lets say they have 26 generic rooms numbered A to Z. Generic room E could be a room with 3 orcs for example.
Dungeon rooms 14, 78, 132, 567, 570, 598, 1093, 1130, 1450 and 1543 could have for description: "Generic room E".
Just a thought.
It could be a complex, a number of levels with single passages connecting them to another group of levels.
Altalazar
First Post
But NOTHING could beat the scale of my Dunegon of Eternal Death (tm). It had 10,000 encounters (one per room) required a full pad of graph paper to draw and the bottom level (like level 50 or whatever it was) had Tiamat and Bahamut in two different rooms in an eternal battle for domination.
Ok, so I was 9 years old. But the maps were certainly fun to draw.
Ok, so I was 9 years old. But the maps were certainly fun to draw.
MerakSpielman
First Post
This dungeon could be interesting to insert into a campaign as a known feature. Every now and then, the players might have to enter a specific area of The Great Dungeon for a specific quest or something.
I'd get bored to tears if we just ran through the whole thing as a campaign in and of itself.
I'd get bored to tears if we just ran through the whole thing as a campaign in and of itself.
Calico_Jack73
First Post
Calico_Jack73 said:
Okay let me rephrase since some people have taken a little offense to that statement. DM's who complain about it being undetailed have no time on their hands and might want to consider letting someone that has the time run the game while they play.
On a serious note, I know... life happens but you look for time when you have it. Some of my best ideas have come while I commute to or from work. A miniature tape recorder is good for times like that. Since I don't have one I'll get to either place, jot down a note about the idea, and then come back to it later when I get a chance. If I am at work and I get an idea I'll shoot a quick one-line e-mail to my home account so it'll be there waiting for me when I get home. I am married but I don't have kids yet. When I do have kids I fully expect to hang up the DM's hat until the kids are old enough to play. I figure that if I watch the kids so my wife can continue to go to her monthly wine & cheese parties she can cover for me when I go play D&D every other week.
Inspiration strikes at the most unlikely times... be prepared for it.
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