Megadungeon Experiences And Advice Needed

[JNAProductions]

Have you ever run one? Ever played in one? Got any experience with them? Any tips? Any good sources to be inspired by, or rip off wholesale?

[Eric Diaz]

Few tips:

a) Have opposing FACTIONS.
b) Have REASONS to KEEP GOING BACK to the dungeon.
c) have a few EMPTY ROOMS and places to rest, etc.
d) always JAQUAY (http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/13085/roleplaying-games/jaquaying-the-dungeon)the dungeon.
e) give opportunities to players to CHANGE/CLEAR the dungeon.
f) give reasons to the dungeon to CHANGE ITSELF.

There are plenty of good megadungeons out there; for literary inspiration, I really like RED NAILS by RE Howard.

[Trask]

I wrote a fairly comprehensive analysis of the megadungeon playstyle and rules hack for 5e based on my experience running "Caverns of Thracia" a legendary od&d megadungeon published by the venerable Judge's Guild

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?550817-5e-Megadungeon-Rules-Hack

[bc56]

Read Angry's megadungeon articles, starting from the beginning.
http://theangrygm.com/series/megadungeon-monday/
I used those to create the framework, and that worked out really well for a 1-year campaign.

[Tanarii]

Read Angry's megadungeon articles, starting from the beginning.
http://theangrygm.com/series/megadungeon-monday/
I used those to create the framework, and that worked out really well for a 1-year campaign.
If he ever publishes it, I'm definitely finding a group and running it. A megadungeon designed from the ground up for a single party with baked in 5e advancement and a decent story is too good an opportunity to pass up. Especially since, despite clearly being heavy on combat, he's putting a lot of thought into the player engagement for explorers and discoverers.

[Laserlight]

When I hear "megadungeon", I think Cattle Driving Necromancers.

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?325177-Cattle-Driving-Necromancers-Bizarre-Campaign-Journal&highlight=cannibal+twins

[JNAProductions]

Read Angry's megadungeon articles, starting from the beginning.
http://theangrygm.com/series/megadungeon-monday/
I used those to create the framework, and that worked out really well for a 1-year campaign.

It's what I'm doing right now. But I can't get the numbers to quite shake out...

[Corsair14]

Ran a few short campaigns based on mega-dungeons when half the party went on vacation from school. They went fine but not something any of us were interested in doing long term. Too much prep work and having to read room after room.

[Beelzebubba]

Megadungeons worked best in Basic.

--

Food, torches, and other consumables create pressure on encumbrance & time. So does encumbrance.

So, incentivize against wasting time. Moving is quick, but searching is very slow. So, if they're trucking along quickly, they'll overlook things, and occasionally get hit by a trap, but if they search the whole way they'll be burning tons of time. This hits torches and lantern oil big-time. This is completely predictable as well, and a thing they have to be conscious of. Secret doors always had a chance to be discovered randomly (odds varied depending on race/class), so it occasionally paid off to keep going fast anyway.

The thing that makes it all work is the random monster encounters. They happened on a 1 in 6 chance per hour, but importantly, had random surprise, morale, and reaction tables to mix it up. So, encounters varied: friendly or immediate combat, easy or hard, getting the drop or getting rocked. That meant an x-factor was constantly being thrown in the mix, and there was a measure of risk and reward - killing everything drained resources and sometimes made neutral parties into enemies; but, parleying meant losing surprise, but potentially gaining allies or learning useful informational.

And, finally, XP was not granted for random encounters, only for treasure, meaning they were best avoided when possible. So that incentivizes characters to get a MOVE on, hide when they can, and only spend the time to search for secret doors/etc. when the dungeon map or environmental clues indicated a good chance of one being there.

So, really, my advice would be to add stricter encumbrance, track consumables, and provide incentives for being efficient and quick. Use random encounters to act like a drain on those resources they have to manage - and that means torches, oil, food and arrows are very valuable loot.

--

I really miss the reaction and morale charts, because it added a mechanically-supported dimension beyond killing everything.

I also like things like: a very large war band of Orcs comes trucking by, and would completely massacre the party if they attacked; but, their morale is high and made an extremely positive reaction. So, as the party is shaking in their boots, as the lead Orc looks at the party, says "Ha, best of luck to you surface dwellers, we go to slaughter our enemies so we can't be bothered to kill you. When you see the mark of the Red Hand, be afraid and show respect. The next time we see you, show us ten severed heads of the Gray Skins and we'll let you live."

That also means with a mixed reaction, sometimes the party will have to bribe their way out of trouble. Food can get a monster to leave. Paying a tariff can be enough for some patrols. Try to give more options than 'attack' or 'hide'.

--

Lastly, some form of harsher encumbrance (I like the optional rule I saw here of using the Variant Encumbrance but cutting armor weight by half), track the volume of each container, and throw in a lot of treasure and expensive/useful items that are bulky and heavy. Give them too much to worry about at once, which will force them to carry as much as they can (moving slowly and cutting into their first actions in combat as they drop stuff), or make hard choices to move quickly (meaning stashing things in places that could get robbed later on).

Nothing is more infuriating than coming back to your 'safe' camping spot and finding your food eaten and your treasure stolen. Nothing is as satisfying as looting the stores of some foes and finding all the stolen treasure.

--

That is the kind of dynamic that made old-school dungeons sing. 5e doesn't really have that baked in - the game is way more Hollywood 'massive set piece battle of attrition' now - so if you want to recreate that it'll take a bit of tweaking.

[Neknoh]

For inspirational settings that are a bit out of the ordinary (and bear with me, it's gonna look and feel "too cute" before the massive dungeon crawly horror sets in):

Made in Abyss, the available anime season is not that long, and even if their dungeon delve is a bit quick, the setting (or a similar one) would be amazing to delve through.

[MaxWilson]

Have you ever run one? Ever played in one? Got any experience with them? Any tips? Any good sources to be inspired by, or rip off wholesale?

The Alexandrian and Courtney Campbell both have lots of good articles applicable to megadungeons.

See for example http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/2017/11/on-megadungeon-and-5th-edition-play.html and http://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/1900/roleplaying-games/treasure-maps-the-unknown-goals-in-the-megadungeon

Next time I run a megadungeon, I want to base it around time travel, with the conceit that the megadungeon connects all times and all places, and that once you enter the megadungeon, if you leave you find that home is... different (butterfly effect/A Sound of Thunder) and no one recognizes you, or they expect you to be different somehow than you are. ("How can you be here? You died ten years ago in the plague!") The only way to get back to your original timeline is to become a Master of Time and Space, which requires penetrating to the heart of the megadungeon, defeating its guardians, and opening the Infinity Gate.

Note that in this context the megadungeon doesn't have to be indoors. A "room" in the dungeon could be a forest somewhere, with entrances and exits which are clearly visible to those who are Initiates of Time and Space (PCs and those monsters in the dungeon who are allowed to be wandering monsters) but not to anyone else. If you choose to abandon the quest and go live in the forest forever, you can do that, but that ends the game for you.

This also gives plenty of excuses for the dungeon to change its layout, restock rooms, etc.