Planning a dungeon crawler

[Jesterface]

A recent discussion with my currently primary gaming group (6 players in a level 9 campaign, within my homebrew world's 'Asia') has come to the conclusion that as much as they've appreciated the effort I've put in to make this a fun and interesting game for them, with plenty of depth, the combination of us all having jobs (I work retail and can start as early as 6am, finish as late as 9:30pm, one player works admin in a sofa store, another is a supervisor at our local Toys R Us, two others work retail, one works for a kitchen/bedroom fitting store and one works as a department store early morning cleaner) and three of them all moving house together recently, it's been decided that they'd like to see the climax of the plot, but for it to end sooner than intended. I've no real problem with this, I can tell that everyone's tired from working, as we often don't start till gone 8 and end up finishing around 11. As such, as much as they love the sheer amount of mind screw I've applied, they generally find they're not engaging with my work as much as they'd like to, and I'm kinda glad they've said they wouldn't mind starting a simpler game.

That in mind, I'm planning to run a 2nd level dungeon crawler for them, with Diablo and Nethack in mind as ideas, maybe a splash of Hordes of the Underdark, still in my homebrew setting (somewhere between Bas Lag, Fable II/III's Albion, Eberron and Iron Kingdoms). Keeping things reasonably simple (they're all smart folks who enjoy having fun characters with interesting abilities), I've already started a class list and races list, but wondered if anyone had any cool +1LA races to suggest for the list; currently have Aasimar, Tiefling and Goliath.

Also, does anyone have any cool tips on making an interesting, possibly labyrinthine dungeon? The idea that sticks in my head currently is each 'floor' has two exits, meaning the dungeon just keeps branching and branching. And are there any suggestions as to how the players come across it? Primary thoughts at the moment are "it's a competition to win a prize", "local ruling figure hires them to cleanse a lair of evil" and "stop the BBEG ending life as we know it".

Many thanks!

~J

[Pally din]

Race: Kitsune, oriental fox people.

Dungeon: redo Castle GreyHawk, feeling free to modify it for both flavor and content. Basicaly, my understanding is it provides for an almost anything goes dungeon.

You can find more info about both online.

[Jesterface]

My setting already has Kitsune, I basically refluffed Changelings, should have mentioned I was moving away from the oriental part of my setting.

Will look into Castle Greyhawk. I've been getting some ideas forming of the dungeon actually leading further and further into the equivalent of Hell.

[Lazers etcetera]

For Asian flavour - Rakshasas, Najas, elephants, tigers, monkey people, crocodiles, Churel (hags), Pisaca (ghouls), mermen, griffins, dragons, yetis. Vanara are a monkey man playable race.

Terrain is obviously very varied. Jungles and deserts in the south like Goa, mountains in the Himalayas, duh.

Palaces and cultists like in Indiana Jones can be good. Also British colonial types!

That could be your dungeon hook - going into the equivalent of the temple of doom. At higher levels you could rescue little kid slaves, and at lower levels cultists and lava and demons start showing their ugly heads.

[Jesterface]

As I said, I'm moving away from the Asian region of the setting, which we've been playing in for about a year or so, and is fleshed out.

I've placed the "dungeon" in the Northlands, which is equivalent in terrain to northern Europe and Scandinavia (mountains, alpine forests, the odd glacier) and lies just beneath the arctic regions. The dungeon itself moves into a section of my setting's "Underdark" and eventually reaches something like the foyer to the gates of Hell. I want to keep the dungeon itself interesting, but the reasons for going in are simple; the barbarian lord who controls the fortress over the dungeon sends people in to 'clean it out' hoping to find out the source of all the monster incursions.

[balrogius]

if you are going with "northerners" maybe a race based on norse mythology. like aasimar's are restricted to norse gods. (wich you probably thought of)

or the dungeon could take them through all the realms or into yggdrasil. and ending in kinda ragnarok thing. it is simple but it's easy to get info.

[Jesterface]

Well, the Aasimar also exist in 'Asia' as 'rinshi' (heroic figures), so I could have them take on regional flavour (einherjar for the northlands for instance). There's no true gods per se for my setting is the problem. I'm thinking that this cave system does lead to some of the other planes, particularly ones containing devils and demons, as well as various horrors, so the Yggdrasil idea certainly fits to my plans (I even called the place 'The Pit of the Ash').

The way this will work will allow players more races should their character die, dependent on how high a level they are and how deep they are, such as meeting drow/svartalf and duergar.

[Jesterface]

Sorry for double-posting/shameless self-bump. One of the players in this game wants a character that's similar in flavour to Howl, of Howl's Moving Castle fame, but I'm at a loss as to what class would be suitable for a 'granted magic by a pact' character. Obvious choices do seem to be Warlock/Dragonfire Adept, Mountebank (Dragon Compendium), "re-fluffed" Sorcerer or a Binder.

Any tips?