Can I get some opinions on megadungeons? Ever explored one? Any fun experiences to share? Any interesting ones youd recommend, just to read even? Always wanted to try one, but never got the chance.
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You ever stick you're dick in crazy. Now imagine doing that two dozen times in one night without any antitoxin or antivenom.
They work well as a campaign where you add to the dungeon between sessions. Published ones, like Worlds Largest Dungeon, honestly suck.
I like the idea of megadungeons, but I've never used one. So, with the first proper game I'm making, I'm going to generate a bunch of dungeons, connect them into a superdungeon with a biome theme, then do the same with other connecting superdungeons of other biome themes to make the megadungeon.
Should be fun, if the hero I make can survive but also be challenged.
Megadungeons are a masturbation exercise for bad dungeon masters and I would unironically prefer Quantum Ogre bullshit over the kind of whining that comes from never seeing 90% of the planning on the board.
The logistics of this makes no sense, where are deliveries received?
It's a game.
Play the game, or leave and play something you want.
That's cool man I've got a food delivery though and am looking for shipping and receiving
Thats for the advices but how doing proper Threat levels for the dungeons adventurings?
Needs to keep Players alart?
*thanks
>It's a game
I fricking hate this bullshit reply, yes of fricking course it's a game moron, people asking questions doesn't make it less of one. If you don't want to properly answer the hypothetical player posing the question either because you can't be bothered or honestly don't know just say "some way for sure but nothing apparent can give you a clue how, is this information relevant to any of your plannings?"
>get called out for being an energy vampire
>sperg out
>Posing a trivial worldbuilding question
>HELP! YOU'RE SUCKING MY ENERGY!!!
Ok, fricking die homosexual. One less shit gm around.
It might because the player may use the information to his advantage. Of course you can simply be honest and say "look i didn't forethought the scenario this much" instead of acting like a passive aggressive b***h.
"Play the game or leave" in response to something irrelevant to a game is actually quite direct and assertive, contrary to how you personally feel.
When the bases are loaded and it's the top of the 9th inning, the fact that the pitcher's bubble gum is blue and where he got it has nothing to do with how we're going to stretch the game into overtime and turn it around.
Play the fricking game or leave.
>in response to something irrelevant to a game
Player: "i would like to gather informations about the dungeon denizens supply lines, i go ask about other adventurers delving attempts and rumors, what do i get?"
There, this is a fair game-relevant request, now what moron?
>is told the path and origin of deliveries have nothing to do with the game
>continues to ask about the path and origin of delieveries without understanding it has nothing to do with the game
just as
>is told the color and origin of the gum have nothing to do with the game
>continues to ask about the color and origin of the gum, without understanding it has nothing to do with the game
>is told the path and origin of deliveries have nothing to do with the game
So the game starts in media-res directly inside the dungeon? Because that's the only occurrence where the PC should focus on more pressing matters.
>Inb4 no! It's my game, go in the fricking dungeon without questions! Reeee!
Frick off, go play a board game if you don't want to put the necessary effort ttrpgs require.
If you don't want to play the game, you can just go do something else you actually want to do.
You don't have to get bent out of shape about it.
You don't need to GM the game if you clearly don't want to.
>game is advertised as being heavily focused on exploring and fighting in dungeons
>be (You), someone with disdain for dungeons if they don't have the perfect amount of fluff by his special standard
>fluff that has nothing to do with how player skill and luck will be tested
>it's made exceedingly clear the fluff has nothing to do with gameplay
>that doesn't matter to (You), there isn't enough fluff, (You) have to raise a stink about it
>(You) can't go somewhere else that cares about moronic fluff and filler, you have to stay in the game (You) hate, and continue to b***h about it
Continue to be a c**t, then. You've done a great job of it this far.
Double down on it.
NTA but have you ever actually ran a dungeon with real people?
Because the party cooking up a scheme to starve out, flood, gas, collapse, undermine, stripmine, explode, teleport, infiltrate, drive out or seduce the anything they can before entering is tricks number one and counting for every party ever unless they are literal children.
he's trolling you, he knows he's contradicting himself
NTA but how many games have mechanics for those things?
Wait, you say they're all made up by daddy DM whim? And they aren't ruled with any sort of measurable consistency?
Sounds like a bunch of shit that has nothing to do with gameplay.
>NTA but how many games have mechanics for those things?
D&D has, also many others.
>D&D has-
Rule 0, DM does what he wants.
Go play Calvin ball moron.
for what things? coherent worldbuilding that the players can engage with? i wouldn't really call that mechanics, it's more like the scenario
Nice spergout troony
Questions that don't have anything to do with gameplay don't apply to the game.
That's what "it's a game" is about.
Play the game, or go play something else.
Having the game take place in a setting that makes sense is definitely relevant. If it was just about mechanics, then you wouldn't need the monsters to be "dragons" or "vampires" etc, you could just come up with some appropriately challenging statistics, and call them "creature 1" and "creature 2" etc. No need for all that irrelevant extra stuff. For some reason that is not usually how it is done though...
Of course all game groups might not care much about all details (such as "where are deliveries received"), but that's just a personal preference.
>goal of the game is to explore dungeons and kill enemies through tactical combat, strengthen one's own abilities, and get superior gear
>"hurr durr whur r duhlivurees receeved"
>where the deliveries come from aren't relevant to the game
>"WHY NAME ANYTHING THEN JUST HAVE GRAY DOT ONE AND GRAY SQUARE TWO REEEEEEEE"
k
but they do potentially have plenty to do with gameplay? the only reason they don't is because the presumed gm doesn't want to answer them, so your reasoning is circular
Deliveries have nothing to do with a game about exploring and becoming stronger. The game is about exploring and becoming stronger, that's where that line ends.
Play the game or leave.
how are you this dense? is it deliberate for the sake of argument? because making yourself seem stupid isn't going to win any argument
you're exploring a dungeon with people in it, even if it's only goblins or something, they still need to eat something and get their tools and stuff somewhere, if you know how they're doing that you can exploit it in various ways, and that's just the potential sabotage angle, you could also use deliveries actively to sneak in for example
I think goblins are hunter / gatherers
so where do they hunt and gather, duh? that's the same thing
It's Forgotten Realms, even the delivery boys are high level mages who can just teleport in.
I know 5th edition does a bad job of this but I feel the whole Forgotten Realms being so high magic even the nobodies have access to it is a self-fulfilling meme. Forgotten Realms is always best run where its assumed that most don't, and its just a mid sized number of well known npcs that are powerful along with various magic items laying around.
I recommend running it as a mid-magic setting instead of a high-magic one while assuming most villages and small towns don't have anyone over level 5 in them.
How much cargo can they carry with them? Does their teleport extend to a vehicle they are driving?
In the old megadungeons, there were tons of back doors, navigable shafts, water flow, magical and mundane elevators, and interfaces with natural cave systems in service of a steady-state ecology. It's part of why modern megadungeons suck so much.
>In the old megadungeons, there were tons of back doors, navigable shafts, water flow, magical and mundane elevators, and interfaces with natural cave systems in service of a steady-state ecology.
That sounds great. Any specific recommendations?
I made this exploded view of WGR1, TSR's most serious attempt at a canonical Castle Greyhawk.
It's kind of controversial, suffers in many places from the emptiness/lolsorandum nature of all finished megadungeons but it does an acceptable job of presenting a huge, historical dungeon with old school flavor throughout.
>WGR1
Thanks!
That can work very well as long as you don't use it all the time. You probably should still give some thought to most locations, and save it for when you inevitably miss something.
You made that? If so, congrats and thanks - one of my favorite dls off of /osrg/ over the years. Haven't actually used it yet, but hope to one day.
I've had two groups tackle it and barely scratch the surface. I should probably take it easier on them with the combats and just let the grind be the real challenge.
I've never run a megadungeon but I've always figured a DM has to take it very easy or wiping out the party could be pretty easy in any of them.
"weird isn't it?"
Easier way to get players paranoid
They're fun to make but not to play. I've never seen a group get through one.
I wouldn't leave a table if the DM decided to run one, but it's one of those things I simply cannot see the appeal of it. I mean, dungeon delving can become interesting enough, before it fizzles out and becomes the DM throwing shit at you without any respite. I guess it would be fine if you can leave at any time and there's something to do elsewhere.
I'd say they can be one of the better formats for a D&D campaign. Plop a sprawling labyrinth full of numerous factions of monsters within a short journey of a frontier town, and then let the players continuously delve and explore.
It can end up a bit like a Metroidvania, where everything is just a single sprawling complex that loops back in on itself, with the players sometimes discovering new hidden entrances that give access to deeper areas or shortcuts that the monsters use to get around.
Bonus points if the monsters are influencing portions of the dungeon and the environment, and so killing powerful ones results in the dungeon changing.
Having multiple factions of monsters also allows for more opportunities for the party to talk their way through problems. Reaction rolls can add to that, but if the players see that the goblins and kobolds are skirmishing, they might try and cut a deal with one side to wipe out the other for promise of safe passage.
That sort of sprawling mashup of rooms where the party isn't sure where the next hall will lead and can continue pressing their luck so long as their supplies hold out gets to the core of the D&D experience. If you kill a dragon, then odds are there are more stairs leading down past that dragon, and the way back isn't necessarily clear either.
>Can I get some opinions on megadungeons?
They're wicked sick.
I've never personally played one in tabletop but The Immortal on NES is set in one and that makes them look really cool.
I once lurked a campaign of The World's Biggest Dungeon. The party was led by an elf paladin with maxed out charisma, who had a knack for recruiting everyone he met, and every now and then they'd have to split the party and send off the NPCs, who would continue adventuring on their own according to his philosophies and methodologies. It was kind of like adventuring by pyramid scheme, one of the NPC parties ended up showing up all levelled up and saving the original party...
I've run them with mixed results. Per usual, it all depends on the party and dm
Didn't you just make this thread three other day? If it doesn't survive it means people don't want to talk about your fricking hyperdungeons.
but we are talking about them
>27 replies with 3 individual posters
30 replies with an unknown amount of posters 🙂
Stop samegayging. The number of posters did not increase.
prove it 🙂
>poster number is still 3
>with 1 image posted
Why did they remove the page number though?
They didn't, they removed the IP number, I don't know why they did it but it's kind of hilarious that they did and not against the spirit of anonymous imageboards so I have nothing against it
Anon, I was making a very obvious joke.
Is that what they call "pretending to be moronic" these days?
No, the concept of making a joke is older than the concept of pretending to be a moron on the internet.
Since you're ignoring the point, I'll take that as a yes
I was only pretending to be pretending to be moronic. I'm actually moronic!
Yeah but being the change you want to see solves the problem.
Shit on multiple levels.
Are your party gonna travel with a wagon full of torches, rations and water? If so how they are going to pass the first slope/stairs? If not how will the characters survive without going back? If they go back to return later how fun is that?
Why are the monsters idle in a random room? What is the purpose of the construction even?
As others have said the greatest megadungeons are the ones that evolve through play. Gygax was trying to get one out with his Castle Zagyg before he died. He only got the first level "upper works" done but you can see how he designed it with infinite fractal potential.
I think they work best as a sort of climax to an adventure, like braving the ruins of a fallen city where the bad guy is at, going in through the sewers and working the way to the castle, etc.
I've played a few, not a fan.
Either it is all one theme and monotonous, or kitchen skink random every zone/level and effectively many dungeons smashed together badly.
>kitchen skink
Is that when you have a lizard traditional housewife who cooks for you?
I've heard people say that Temple of Elemental Evil (AD&D1e) doesn't count, but that's the closest thing I've done. We did it as a throw-back campaign to begin our 1e->2e->3.0 and onward progression.
It was a decent experience. It could feel tedious at times - especially having to routinely go back and forth into/ out of the dungeon to rest or return to town - but that wasn't helped by 1e's mechanics, either. I guess my big personal take-away, though, is that if a dungeon is so big that is basically functions as a campaign in itself - significant, branching/ alternate paths that consume large amounts of time, side quests along the way, etc. - it'd be more interesting if it was just a traditional, open/ semi open-world campaign at that point.
Even T1-4 undergoes a jarring tone shift where Gygax's material ended and Mentzer picked it up.
Don't you die on me yet
How do you fill that many rooms with content and have it be balanced and not repetitive?
by thinking of it as an ecosystem and not as a theme park with random attractions sprinkled around, which is another reason the guy who seethed about someone asking where resources come into the dungeon from is moronic
thread theme:
I ran a mega dungeon campaign over a year or so.
If I'm brutally honest the novelty wore off about the fourth session or so. Even by mixing up the environment as much I can and putting in settlements it really limited the pcs in where they could and sucked a bit of the "open adventure" feel of the game.
Was fun in one part though where these Lizardmen had formed a community with lightning spitting Spiders and were basically responsible for the magical equivalent of a power grid. The party basically signed on with them as mercs and used a spider to lighting frag a load of sirens deeper in the flooded parts of the dungeon.
I played through banewarrens / ptolus. The frequent back and forth and interacting with the people outside of the dungeon, and doing multiple excursions to the dungeon were what made it fun.
The more diablo 1-esque "it's just a dungeon but huge" approach gets tedious.
Has anyone here run or played Rappan Athuk?
I have. Didn't get very far, although I really enjoyed the content. Like some anons have said already, I still use it for inspiration or straight up steal levels of the dungeon on occasion.
Better as a site based sandbox with specific objectives rather than an explore and solve roml