Cannonball Run Dungeon Crawl

[Someonelse]

So I had this idea inspired by that old movie cannonball run, but as a dungeon crawl. I'm running a game set in Ptolus (look it up if you haven't heard of it, it's awesome) and I am going to use Dwarvenhearth as the dungeon. This is the ancestral home of the stonelost dwarves that was abandoned and the modern ancestors hold it as sacred and don't think themselves worthy to enter.

Anyway, I'll skip all the backstory and everything because it doesn't matter. My point here is that I have 18 different groups within the city of Ptolus who have a key to dwarvenhearth, some purchased legally, some stolen and some bought on the black market (aka stolen). For each of those groups I took the time to figure out each party member, their alignment, race, class and levels as well as a cool hook for a few of them. After I finished writing out this list of characters I created I was staggered, 63 NPCs for the PCs to potentially interact with. Now some of those are good aligned characters who may ally with the PCs, some are enemies who will attack on sight, some are sneaky and will avoid the PCs, an encounter with them is all spot and listen checks and if they make it the PCs may give chase, but otherwise they run away. I'm also trying to include as many characters from the PCs backstories as I can. I have a whole random encounter chart worked out with a mix of these adventuring parties and wandering monsters designed so that I can have multiple encounters at once; the PCs, and NPC adventuring party and a wandering monster walk into a bar...

Now, the thing is, when I get to writing what I think is a cool idea I just write, I don't give any consideration to logistics when I write, I tend to save that challenge for later. Now I'm kind of stuck, fortunately we haven't gotten to this, the PCs are Lv3 and this is what I'm planning for somewhere around Lv12.

How in the world can I pull this off? Is this just truly impossible?

[Someonelse]

wow, no response.
That's a bad sign.

[paperarmor]

It's ambitious as all hell. That said it's a cool idea just make sure you pace yourself, give each party its own turf and don't have them mingle together or you might get confused on who's who.

[Someonelse]

Do you mind if I bump? Only because I wrote this when I first posted this, but I just began running this dungeon in our last session.

[Elxir_Breauer]

This sounds almost like something that should be run for a convention, get a ton of people together with a few assistant GMs and have it be mostly players, consulting with the Head GM (you) on sticking points, like if two groups attempt to do the same or similar things at the same time. Sounds like a blast to play, loved the movie as a kid. Might work better on Roll20 or the like though, especially with a dozen or more players.

[Soranar]

There can be only 1...

My thought, logistically speaking, would be to give a power value to each group. I would rate it from 1 to 6 (say a group of really powerful clerics or druids would be a 6 while a group of monks a 1)

Make yourself a map with a marker for each group, when a group encounters another one roll two d6 to represent each group and have the strongest result defeat/kill/injure the other group. If you decide a group was killed, change their marker for a static pin to show the corpses. It'll be a chore at first but , after a while, the groups should dwindle down to manageable levels.

Another idea would be to introduce a group that keeps getting stronger with each party it defeats (for example necromancers that keep changing the corpses into an army of undead) and your PCs can find survivors running for their lives away from said necromancers (say a rogue that managed to sneak away or the like). This way you have a reason to get rid of NPCs.

If you treat each NPC individually, it'll become an impossible chore so keep them organized in parties.

[Soranar]

In most of my games, characters usually level every time we met. That means at least 9 meetings before they reach the level appropriate for your dungeoncrawl... that'll take a while.

[Thealtruistorc]

Fun time!

First, there needs to be at least one Burt Reynolds, with maybe an ice assassin of him as well.

Second, I suggest looking through the kitchen for ideas. There are a lot of insane builds out there and at least a few will be usable for this purpose.

Third, in the spirit of the film I would make a few racers based on the OotS cast and maybe some based on us playgrounders. If there is something good at the end I envision we will be the first ones after it.

More specific ideas may come later.

[Someonelse]

The end of the dungeon is where they meet a great wyrm shadow dragon. The PCs can't beat the dragon by themselves, but if every group works together they could do it. So the real challenge then is to get all these different groups to work together, the more groups they can get to join, the better their chances will be.
Right now I'm thinking that I will just use lower level stats for the dragon as they get more people to join. But I'm trying to think of something more eloquent.

[Thealtruistorc]

Right now I'm thinking that I will just use lower level stats for the dragon as they get more people to join. But I'm trying to think of something more eloquent.

Use the Feral Dragon Template. That will make things easier and also a whole lot more interesting (Burt Reynolds vs a mindless Rampaging Dragon. Melikes).