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Zahhak
2012-11-23, 05:08 PM
Explanation no ones cares about:

In one of the games I was playing with some friends there was an area (basically a dungeon) our DM referred to as the "Mages Asylum" which was inspired apparently by MC Escher and a few video games he liked. Over the years it has become the most memorable single session we've probably ever played. We don't normally do dungeon crawls, so that it's probably part of why. But it was still an amazing session. The dungeon was a series of walkways connecting a few rooms and platforms. There was a few minor constructs to fight, but nothing major and I don't remember there being any loot. But as we explored we realized a few things: the dungeon was a pocket dimension; the dungeon was often stacking up upon itself in ways which are impossible ("I make a Knowledge 'Architecture and Engineering' check" "It's impossible, the hells the matter with you?") and if we walked off the side of the walkways we would end up walking on the bottom of the walkway. And then there was mini-boss fight no one really cares about.

Anyways, I was inspired by this dungeon a year or two ago and pulled out some graphing paper and wrote up a dungeon inspired by it for a campaign I was working on, but nothing ever came from it. I've drafted a few campaigns since then, always hoping to be able to reference it somehow, but never getting to run any. Then I managed to force my way into the group agreeing that when one of the current games wraps up, I'll have my turn. I've been half-working on a campaign where I could pull out my dungeon, then I looked at it and my notes for it and went "this is not what I remembered making... This actually kinda sucks. Crap"

So, now I'm thinking about what made that dungeon crawl so memorable without just copy-pasting the dungeon from what I remember about it.

tl;dr: I've been thinking about what makes game sessions, especially dungeon crawls, memorable. I got nothing other then uniqueness and thought some folks here might enjoy talking about it.

kieza
2012-11-23, 06:34 PM
I aim for uniqueness by putting a lot of design effort into combat encounters. I used to just slap together a few monsters and some terrain for most fights, but I realized that the only purpose of most fights was to pad adventure length and provide a source of XP. So I started cutting out unneccessary fights and concentrating on the ones that were either plot-relevant or just cool. Now, most sessions I run (3-4 hours long) have just a single, frequently massive, fight with unique enemies and a couple of gimmicks.

Examples:

(I've posted this one before) The players needed to escape an enemy fortress after their surgical strike failed. Problem was, they got in via teleport and (this being 4e) it would take a while to teleport back out. So, I cut to the last minute/10 rounds of the ritual to open the portal and told them to protect the wizard while the entire garrison came after them. The fight consisted of several escalating waves, culminating in a combination of gryphon riders and gishes just as the portal opened. The party made it back out, but 3/5 were unconscious and one of the others was on fire.

Assault on a fortified position: The party needed to break through enemy lines and relieve an advance force that had gotten separated from the main body of troops. The point they wound up assaulting had a group of pikemen, an entire company of (minion) archers, and a pair of magical "ward generators." Any damage which originated outside the wards and affected a creature inside the wards instead targeted the generator, which had resist all 20. All of the archers were inside the wards. So, the party had to either (A) charge through volleys from the archers and push past the pikemen to get inside the wards or (B) overload the wards by hitting them with massive damage until they failed.

Urban combat: The party was attacking a mad scientist who had set himself up as the despot of a small city. Midway through their assault, the mad scientist started firing his Fiery Ray of Doom (TM) at them while they fought his loyal troops and mechanical monstrosities in the streets of the city. In the process of fighting their way to his stronghold while avoiding the doom ray, they (and the enemy forces) started blasting holes in walls as the result of fireballs and thunderwaves in the enclosed spaces...and then when they punched out the load-bearing walls, the buildings started collapsing around them. Of course, once they got out of the rubble, they started doing this deliberately in order to make an easier path, culminating when the wizard blew out one side of a 5-story clock tower in order to drop it on the steam-powered death machine underneath it.

Serpentine
2012-11-26, 03:48 AM
I have two dungeons ready-to-run on this forum: Morndrax's Labyrinth (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8737530&postcount=3) and the Temple of the Trickster God (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=8737342&postcount=2).
I've been told, by my players, that my dungeon-making is one of my more notable DM talents.
You tell me.

Totally Guy
2012-11-26, 05:18 AM
While the contents of the dungeon are important it's easy to underestimate the value of why the players are in the dungeon in the first place.

As some would say, it's not what you fight, but what you fight for.

Edit: I'm most proud of this dungeon, but by itself it lacks the context of why it was great.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v44/macdonnell/SCAN0003.jpg

Andreaz
2012-11-26, 07:50 AM
One "Dungeon" I played in was during a Heaven's Reach Exalted game, set in a backwater planet.
The group whole aimed to kill a key political enemy of their allies, which happened in a train.
Among other things we had to maneuver through or around wagons, fight our way through a particularly dangerous cargo, dispute with an enemy group over who would hold the first VIP wagon hostage, disarm a bomb and fight a couple assassins hired by one of our many enemies.
If you ever watched Baccano!, think of the Flying Pussyfoot. That's what inspired the original setup and the DM and I aimed to make it as much a cluster**** as we could.
It was glorious.


It was memorable because of just how hilariously messy (or messily hilarious) the whole thing was without dropping the seriousness of the situation for a moment. There also was a sword fight atop the wagons, and a small ship comet-dropped one of the aforementioned assassins on us, quite evocative.

Pokonic
2012-11-26, 07:40 PM
Well, there was that one time the party sumbled apon a abandoned mad scientists lab in the middle of a otherwise magitech-free Forgotten Realms game.

Fun fact? Lazer turrets are a lot more harmful when they are shooting literal beams of Harm. There was also the potion vats. And the ooze-potion creature that was created when the party caused several of the vats to leak. And then there was the tribe of inteligent templated animals that hounded the party when they unlocked the lower chambers.

There was also a goblin tribe who's members where around 6 CR each because of the horrible mutations, with a Cancer Mage for a leader. Who the party eventualy needed to ally with to fight off the spellstiched ogres and trolls that also came up out of the lower pits.

The actual madman ended up becomeing some horrid ten-headed dragon-troll abomination and started spewing highly acidic gunk on the floors and stairs, which, after a while, was causing whole floors to fall and parts of the complex to buckle. The party never actualy killed the beast and excaped from the hellhole, goblin tribe in tow, but the place caved in a few minutes after they where forced to flee.

Acanous
2012-11-26, 11:01 PM
Rappan Athuk was pretty memorable. I remember having to dig out a calculator to figure out the weight of a bridge made of gold.

Also, since I haven't been beaten to it yet, the cave of Steve the Aboleth.

Sudain
2012-11-27, 12:29 AM
I find the memorable dungeons are the ones with texture and things that I can't explain. Or force me to think in new and unconventional ways.

For example I created a dungeon with a pool of water which was healing. You drink it and it heals you for 1d8. Not a bad gig. Players filled up couple flasks full. Another player decides to take a quick swim after offering a prayer. The water starts to fizz and he dies. They still don't have a conclusive diagnosis as no one was willing to fetch the body. They know it wasn't acid, and it wasn't defiled as the water still provided healing properties.

Later on, they had to rescue the local 'princess' - ala town cleric from a her underwater cage. Anyone who went into that water lost all of their spells for the day - no save. The lock was rusted shut on the underside of the floating cage(which was chained down giving her about 2-3 inches of breathable air at the top). That was fun for the rogue.

A different part in that campaign had a town where you could not tell the truth. (Think zone of truth but zone of lies). That was interesting as well.

To make it memorable take the normal and pervert it. Make it not normal, abnormal. but don't over-use that or abnormal becomes normal.

Zahhak
2012-11-27, 12:13 PM
Fun fact? Lazer turrets are a lot more harmful when they are shooting literal beams of Harm.

God, I abuse the spell system enough, I've previously made rifles out of rod of magic missile. All you're doing is giving me more evil ideas.

Anyways, thanks for the input guys.

yougi
2012-11-27, 06:04 PM
One of the most memorable dungeons I've played in, and then ran, was a first edition module: C2 The Lost Island of Castanamir. It was really, REALLY awesome. I've then adapted it to 3.5 (could email you my notes if you want), and GOD was it awesome.

The whole dungeon is this mad wizard's complex. It is filled with many weird NPCs, has a weird navigation system, the kind where you have to experiment to figure out just HOW you'll be making the map. I highly recommend it, or at least using it as inspiration.

Pokonic
2012-11-27, 09:41 PM
God, I abuse the spell system enough, I've previously made rifles out of rod of magic missile. All you're doing is giving me more evil ideas.

Anyways, thanks for the input guys.

Ooh, I have another one:


A mechinegun-like contraption that shoots colorful beams of light (like a rainbow) at high speeds. When you get hit by it, roll the die to see just how many beams you get hit by, and then roll to see what Prismatic-style effects the PC just got hit with.

The results have ranged from people turning into acidified puddles of petrified rock to simply catching on fire and being forced to roll.

The next "mad scientist" like boss i use is going to have two turret's like this in his final encounter with the party. The scientist just hides behind a meat-shieldy golem, the real threats being the two massive contraptions on either side of his throne peppering the party with random effects.

Zahhak
2012-11-28, 12:42 AM
As much as I enjoy abusing the spell system, you should really stop encouraging me. All it'll do is make my PCs hate me.

DigoDragon
2012-11-28, 09:28 AM
The TESLA Labs
Easily the most memorable dungeons my players know. The TESLA Labs are a series of underground bunkers and laboratories built hundreds of years ago by a joint Elf-Human civilization that went extinct by mysterious reasons (Though hints in these labs point to the possibility the civ destroyed themselves in an effort to wipe out invaders from another Plane).

The labs are still maintained by a large variety of constructs and many ancient magical treasures can still be found there. However, after centuries of topor the constructs have begun to break down, somtimes for hilarious effect and other times to deadly encounters.
Often the players get treated to illusionary meetings with an elf named Arturo, supposedly the leader and designer of the TESLA Labs. The illusions are just pre-recordings meant for the next civilization that arises, often with the context that if the adventuring party performs a little test, they will get rewarded with treasure.

Yes, there is a big influence from Portal at work here, but not so much that it is Portal. My players love that game series, so this is an interesting treat.

valadil
2012-11-28, 01:54 PM
I remember bits and pieces of dungeons. I couldn't tell you which dungeons those bits or pieces belonged to though.

I think the thing I like about dungeons is the engineering. I like seeing how the dungeon fits together. I like MacGuyvering ways to get around obstacles.

The problem with this is that neither of those things is something I do in character. Maybe some characters have different interests in aspects of the dungeon, but that really just affects how much detail I take in rather than how the character feels about it. There are exceptions of course, but those usually come up when a GM writes in some content specific to my character.

What's memorable for me in a game is going to be expressing my character. I don't find that much room for expression in dungeons, just observation and problem solving. Now, I'm not trying to knock on dungeons, but I'm curious about any instances of dungeons that were memorable to a specific character because of who that character was. Anybody got examples?