Vote up a dungeon (4e) [voting concluded- dungeon pending]

[Mercenary Pen]

First off, welcome to one of the most ambitious 'vote up a...' threads in recent history, Vote up a dungeon.

Rules of voting

1. Only a single vote per person per aspect is allowed. Multiple voting will not be counted. In some cases, voters can select multiple options, but voting again will not be allowed. This could probably have gone unsaid, but it’s nice to clarify it for everyone’s benefit.

2. Please only vote for the options provided. If you feel the need to suggest another option that I may have missed, do so by PM and I will consider it. Inherently paradoxical options are likely to be vetoed on the grounds that insanity does not help me produce good quality dungeons.

3. Please do not criticize or disparage the votes of other forum members. Let the votes fall where they may. It’s a dungeon, and therefore, there is room (hopefully) for differing styles and options. So just be patient, and allow other voters to voice their own opinions.

4. Suggestions for different aspects are allowed, but any major suggestions will have to be voted upon, so be advised that anything you offer could be voted down by others.

5. Changing of votes is not permitted. I have little patience for tactical voting and Bandwagonry so be grateful that I have not planned for a secret ballot.

6. If your vote cannot be tallied due to violation of any of these rules, I will post to inform you of that before voting ends. I will also ask you to modify your vote, so that it may be changed.

7. Unless otherwise stated, each poll's result will be winner-takes-all. We will sometimes take "popular losers" and work them in somewhere, but the winner of each poll will get the most attention in the crafting of the dungeon.

8.Upon commencing each vote I will announce the deadline by which time votes must be in. Living in the UK, these times will be GMT rather than fitting to American time zones, you have been warned.

Vote 1: Tier of Play
Winner- Mid Heroic


{table]Option|Explanation|Votes
Low Heroic|Levels 1-4|2
Mid Heroic|Levels 4-7|8
High Heroic|Levels 7-10|3
Heroic- Paragon|Levels 9-12|
Low Paragon|Levels 11-13|1
Mid Paragon|Levels 13-16|3
High Paragon|Levels 16-19|1
Paragon- Epic|Levels 19-22|
Low Epic|Levels 20-23|
Mid Epic|Levels 23-27|
High Epic|Levels 27-30+|2[/table]

Vote 2: Planes or Regions
Winners: The Feywild and the Prime Material Underdark.


{table]option|votes
The Astral Sea|2
The Divine Dominions|
The Nine Hells|2
The Elemental Chaos|
The Abyss|
The Prime Material|6
The Underdark|6
The Feywild|8
The Shadowfell|2[/table]

Vote 3: Surrounding terrain

Feywild- Jungle with Freshwater
Underdark- Underground Freshwater


Feywild
{table]Options|Votes
Forest|1
Jungle|3
Swamp|1
Grasslands|
Mountains|1
Hill Country|
Desert|2
Tundra|
Freshwater|3
Saltwater|1
Urban|[/table]

Underdark
{table]Options|Votes
Small Caves|
Large Caves|2
Underground Freshwater|5
Underground Saltwater|1
Underground Wilderness|2
Underground Cultivated|1
Urban|1[/table]

Vote 4: Dungeon Structure:
Winner= Innocuous Structure.

{table]Options|Votes
Outdoor dungeon|1
Ruined Structure|2
Fortified Structure|4
Innocuous Structure|6[/table]

Vote 5: Number of hostile factions
Winner=Three Factions

{table]Options|Votes
1 faction|
2 factions|
3 factions|5
4 factions|[/table]

Vote 6: Hostile Races
Winners= Cults, Elementals and Denizens of the Shadowfell.

{table]Options|Votes
Fey creatures|3
Denizens of the underdark|3
Draconic forces|2
Devilish provocateurs|1
Demonic agitators|2
Monstrous Humanoids|
Undead|2
Cults|5
Elementals|5
Divine servants|1
PC races|
Aberrations|4
Denizens of the Shadowfell|5[/table]

Next vote will be for the intentions of the villainous factions. I haven't prepared categories to vote for, so please make 1 suggestion, but do not tie it to a specific faction.

EDIT: All votes concluded, dungeon pending.

[XiaoTie]

Hum, lets see...I'll vote for High Heroic

[Mercenary Pen]

First vote is tallied.

[Pronounceable]

I knew this one was inevitable. Wonder how long this voting craze will go on. Not that it's bad, but it's gotta die down sometime.

Voting mid heroic.

[Mercenary Pen]

Vote is tallied.

EDIT: So is the vote below.

[Zeta Kai]

Mid-Heroic

[UnChosenOne]

High Epic.

[Emperor Demonking]

Mid heroic

[Mercenary Pen]

Votes are tallied.

[TheCheshireHat]

*jumps into the Mid-heroic bandwagon*

[Mercenary Pen]

Votes are tallied.

Please refer to rules of voting regarding such subjects as bandwagons and tactical voting, and remember there is more than 24 hours to go.

[Vic_Sage]

Mid Paragon for me.

[Glooble Glistencrist]

High Heroic and Low Paragon are my favorite levels to play. Since High Heroic is already winning, I'll add to that.

[Mercenary Pen]

Votes Tallied.

[afroakuma]

I knew this one was inevitable. Wonder how long this voting craze will go on. Not that it's bad, but it's gotta die down sometime.

I don't plan on cancelling VUAV anytime soon unless people get tired of it.

[Zeta Kai]

VUAM (3.5) will resume after either FFX D20 or VUACS ends, whichever comes first.

[Mushroom Ninja]

High Epic

I want to see what sort of things can happen in a lv 30 dungeon :smallbiggrin:

[Inyssius Tor]

Fourth-most ambitious, counting Vote Up A Class (4e) and maybe another one that I forgot between coming up with the above number and actually hitting the Reply button.

Low Heroic, since it's actually a real challenge to keep low-heroic dungeons interesting without tromping all over the higher levels' territory, and difficult to make them at all without filling them with gobs or kobs.

[Mercenary Pen]

I don't plan on cancelling VUAV anytime soon unless people get tired of it.

Must be a bit annoying for you and Zeta to have to justify your trend on any old random thread... I've also noticed you haven't voted yet Afro (considering your vote perchance?)


On another note, Votes are tallied.

[Limos]

I vote Mid Heroic

[Mercenary Pen]

Votes ate Rallied (or something like that).

[afroakuma]

Fourth-most ambitious, counting Vote Up A Class (4e) and maybe another one that I forgot between coming up with the above number and actually hitting the Reply button.

Low Heroic, since it's actually a real challenge to keep low-heroic dungeons interesting without tromping all over the higher levels' territory, and difficult to make them at all without filling them with gobs or kobs.

Well, now I'm just curious. What are the three most ambitious ones?

[AgentPaper]

I would guess Vote up a Campaign setting, Vote up a class (4E), and Vote up a class (3.5), in that order. (Classes are a bit harder to make in 4E than 3.5)

[Mercenary Pen]

Okay, I've changed it from 'second most ambitious' to 'one of the most ambitious'... can people stop nitpicking now?

[Draz74]

High Paragon.

[Flabbicus]

Mid Heroic

[AgentPaper]

Mid Paragon is the current level of my group, so...

[Mewtarthio]

Mid-Paragon

[Sequinox]

Low Heroic

[Mercenary Pen]

Votes tallied.

Reminder, there is still 26 hours to go. Nothing has an insurmountable lead as yet by any stretch of the imagination...

[Shadow_Elf]

Low Paragon!

[Alteran]

High Heroic.

[Mercenary Pen]

Votes are tallied.

[Mercenary Pen]

Time for a spoiler methinks:

The next vote will be for the planes or regions occupied by this dungeon.

[Knaight]

If its not too late, mid-heroic.

[Mercenary Pen]

Not too late by a long chalk, the turnover time may have been unclear, but there's still ten and a half hours to go.

[bue52]

I vote for MID-HEROIC please.

[Mercenary Pen]

Votes tallied.

[Mercenary Pen]

First Vote is now concluded

and the winner
with 8 votes
is without a doubt
Mid-Heroic

The next vote is for the planes or regions between which the dungeon is situated. I've picked a gimmick for this dungeon, in that it happens to be split between two separate planes or regions, so please vote for:

TWO of the options below-

Options for next vote are:

{table]option|votes
The Astral Sea|
The Divine Dominions|
The Nine Hells|
The Elemental Chaos|
The Abyss|
The Prime Material|
The Underdark|
The Feywild|
The Shadowfell|[/table]

[Mewtarthio]

Prime Material
Underdark

[Glooble Glistencrist]

I love the Underdark, and you just don't see enough of it. It'd be fun to see that juxtaposed with the Feywild. So I vote:

Underdark
Feywild

[Alteran]

I will also vote for Underdark and Feywild. I know the Feywild has an Underdark, so it could work out like that? I don't know, that's your job. :smalltongue:

[Pronounceable]

Double posting is possible. Triple posting may rarely happen. Quadruple posting'd really be weird. I don't know the word after that, but it certainly should be impossible in any well built universe.

Just what is wrong with the forums?
...

Nine Hells and Feywild, a combination hitherto unseen (or is it?).

[Vic_Sage]

Feywild and Shadowfell

[AgentPaper]

The Prime Material and the Astral Sea.

Nice job on the quintuple-post, btw. :smalltongue:

[Mercenary Pen]

Votes are tallied.

Apologies about the extraneous posts (which have now been deleted)- you would not believe how long it took me to be at all certain that I'd gotten everything I needed to posted up (in excess of an hour to post the edit of my first post and, so I thought, post up the new vote here)...

[Emperor Demonking]

Nine Hells
Prime Material

[Szilard]

Prime Material
Feywild

[Rigon]

Feywild
Astral Sea

[UnChosenOne]

The Underdark
The Shadowfell

[Mercenary Pen]

Votes are tallied...

This is certainly turning out to be an interesting contest... anything could change within the next six and three quarter hours.

[Inyssius Tor]

Feydark
Underwild

[Limos]

Underdark
Prime Material

[Mercenary Pen]

Stoats are Valid- I mean votes are tallied. Not looking anything like as ambitious as I'd hoped, with planar portals as a possibility, but I'll see what I can do to bring out the epic nature of this dungeon.

[Mewtarthio]

You mean the mid-heroic nature of this dungeon. :smallwink:

[Mercenary Pen]

You mean the mid-heroic nature of this dungeon. :smallwink:

More or less, I still hope to take this Mid-Heroic dungeon and give it something closer to the overall feel of an epic dungeon. It won't hold a candle to locations like the Iron Fortress of Chernoggar or somewhere like that- in all probability- but I'll try and get it as close to that standard as I can.

Also, spoiler time:
The next votes will be for the surrounding geographies to both planes of the dungeon.

[Vadin]

The Prime Material
The Feywild

[Mercenary Pen]

Votes are tallied.

[Pronounceable]

Don't you mean "boats are rallied"?

[Mercenary Pen]

Don't you mean "boats are rallied"?

Don't be silly, goats do ballet.

[Mercenary Pen]

Okay that concludes the voting of the extraplanar jury, and the answer was obvious to me- The Feywild took the top spot and had to go in. However, The Underdark and The Prime Material took joint second place.

Considering that the Underdark is a part of the Prime Material, (despite having echoes in the Feywild and possibly the Shadowfell), I decided that those two votes could be effectively combined- allowing me to state that this dungeon will be suspended betwixt the Feywild and the Underdark of the Prime Material.

The next vote, as I said before, is to determine the surrounding terrain to each dungeon, therefore the options are as follows:

For the Feywild

{table]Options
Forest
Jungle
Swamp
Grasslands
Mountains
Hill Country
Desert
Tundra
Freshwater
Saltwater
Urban[/table]

For the Underdark

{table]Options
Small Caves
Large Caves
Underground Freshwater
Underground Saltwater
Urban
Underground Wilderness
Underground Cultivated[/table]

Please pick one option from each table, voting concludes this time tomorrow night.

[Shadow_Elf]

Freshwater and Underground Freshwater.

I'm seeing a river flowing from one plane to the other here...

[Szilard]

Desert and large caves.

[Vadin]

Jungle and underground wilderness

[Glooble Glistencrist]

Jungle and Urban.

[Reath]

Forest and Underground Wilderness.

For teh class.

[Mewtarthio]

Desert and Underground Freshwater

Because the image of a traveller nearly dying of thirst only to wake up in a pool of cool, clear water surrounded by monsters is an image that I just can't help but love. Bonus points since it's the Feywild, and I imagine the traveller's a native of the Prime who's really, really lost.

[DragonTounge]

Mountains and large cave.
Caves headed into underdark anyone.....

[AgentPaper]

Freshwater and Underground Freshwater.

[Pronounceable]

Underground saltwater and swamp.

[Limos]

Saltwater and Underground Freshwater

Which would make the dungeon very briney.

[Mercenary Pen]

Bloated Sally- I mean, Votes are tallied.

This vote is turning out to be interesting for me as much as anyone else, because I have no idea how it'll turn out.

[Emperor Demonking]

Freshwater for both.

[archmage45]

Jungle and Underground Cultivated

[Mercenary Pen]

Coats on Gallows. Votes are tallied

[Mercenary Pen]

Okay, at midnight GMT the voting ceased. The winners are, for the Feywild:

Jungle and Freshwater with three votes each.

And, for the underdark:

Underground Freshwater with a total of 5 votes.


The next vote is for the structure of the dungeon, should it be outdoor (or the underdark equivalent), should it be ruined, should it be fortified, or should it be innocuous, its time for you to decide Ladies and Gentlemen.

Vote 4: Dungeon Structure

{table]Options
Outdoor dungeon
Ruined Structure
Fortified Structure
Innocuous Structure[/table]

For this one, vote for just one option.

[DragonTounge]

I believe I will vote for Fortified Structure.

[Szilard]

Innocuous structure.

[Rigon]

feyForest
underdarkUnderground Cultivated

[Szilard]

feyForest
underdarkUnderground Cultivated

A litle too late for that.

[Inyssius Tor]

Ruined?

Yep.

[Mewtarthio]

I'm voting Innocuous Structure. It seems so like the Fey.

[Shadow_Elf]

Innocuous Structure

Is that our quest objective? I totally wouldnt have noticed that if it hadnt been for that convenient plot device!

[Mercenary Pen]

Votes are tallied.

Just to clarify, an innocuous structure is one that looks totally mundane, and not at all dungeon shaped...

For example, had we required an innocuous structure in an urban environment, a portaloo would have fitted the bill.

[AgentPaper]

Fortified! The foul beasts of the underdark plan invasion!

[Mercenary Pen]

Vote is tallied.

Funny, I always thought it was the mighty hosts of the Feywild planning to invade. (This is not a spoiler)

[UnChosenOne]

Innocuous Structure.

[Mercenary Pen]

vote tallied sneak attack

[archmage45]

Fortified Structure

[Mercenary Pen]

Votes tallied sudden strike.

[Glooble Glistencrist]

I say ruined structure.

[Mercenary Pen]

Vote Tallied Grab attempt.

[vegetalss4]

Fortified vote defense
two can play that game

[Mercenary Pen]

Vetos are tallied.

[Vadin]

Innocuous Structure!

[Mercenary Pen]

Evil squirrels tallied.

[Emperor Demonking]

Outdoor dungeon.

[Crabs Magee]

Innocuous Structure

[Mercenary Pen]

Giant Space Hamsters tallied.

[Vadin]

Giant Space Hamsters tallied.

I change my and everyone else's votes to these.

[Mercenary Pen]

I've called time 10 minutes early, because I'm not feeling so good- and the winner is Innocuous Structure.

Next vote will be for:


Vote 5: Number of hostile factions

{table]Options
1 faction
2 factions
3 factions
4 factions[/table]

For this one, vote for just one option.

[Szilard]

Three Factions.

[Knaight]

Three Factions

[Glooble Glistencrist]

Three Factions sounds perfect. Four would be too many, one or two would be boring.

[Shadow_Elf]

Is this deciding how many different interest groups reside in this dungeon? Like 1 being a dragon and its Kobolds, 2 being Bandits and Planar Beast Tamers sharing the same abandonned manor, three being a triumvirate of priests, wizards and warriors, and four being a Balor leadings Demons against a Pit Fiend leading Devils against a Solar leading Angels against a Dragon leading Dragonspawn against the Balor?

If I understand correctly, I vote for Three Interest Groups

[UnChosenOne]

Three Factions.

[Mercenary Pen]

Votes are tallied...

And Shadow Elf, you did understand correctly.

[Emperor Demonking]

With two planes - Three

[Mercenary Pen]

Rust Monster tallied.

[Mercenary Pen]

Okay, the vote for number of hostile factions is now concluded and- by way of a unanimous vote- this dungeon will have three hostile factions.

All I need you to do now is give me some pointers as to what those factions should be:


Vote 6: Hostile Races

{table]Options
Fey creatures
Denizens of the underdark
Draconic forces
Devilish provocateurs
Demonic agitators
Monstrous Humanoids
Undead
Cults
Elementals
Divine servants
PC races
Aberrations
Denizens of the Shadowfell[/table]
Please vote for any three options.

[insecure]

I'll throw in a vote for:

Denizens of the shadowfell
Elementals
Devilish provocateurs

[Vic_Sage]

Fey, Elementals, and Abberations

[Szilard]

Undead, Elementals, and Denizens of the Shadowfell.

[Glooble Glistencrist]

Draconic Forces, Elementals, and Cults Bonus points if it's a cult of Zehir.

[Pronounceable]

Fey, aberration and divine servants.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Undead, cults, denizens of the Shadowfell

[Vadin]

Elementals, Draconic creatures, and Demonic Agitators

As disparate as possible? Yeah, kinda.

[Mewtarthio]

Underdark
Aberrations
Cults

[Mercenary Pen]

Votes are tallied.

[Emperor Demonking]

Denizens of the underdark
Demonic
Denizens of the Shadowfell

[Mercenary Pen]

Votes tallied.

[UnChosenOne]

Denizens of the Shadowfell
Cults
Denizens of the underdark

[Mercenary Pen]

Votes are tallied, and ideas are beginning to come together...

This WILL be interesting.

[Flabbicus]

Fey Creatures
Aberrations
Cults

[Mercenary Pen]

Votes tallied.

[Mercenary Pen]

Well, it would appear that Elementals, Cults and Denizens of the Shadowfell won the day today, but that only serves to make the next vote more interesting:

Next vote will be for the intentions of the villainous factions. I haven't prepared categories to vote for, so please make 1 suggestion, but do not tie it to a specific faction.

[Szilard]

Wanting to control the dungeon.

[Mewtarthio]

How about The Greater Good?

[Glooble Glistencrist]

Trying to steal a powerful artifact hidden in the innocuos structure.

[Shadow_Elf]

How about the obvious one...

Blowing Eachothers' Brains Out?

[Mercenary Pen]

Interesting, but more ideas required at this stage.

[UnChosenOne]

I would think it would be something like next:
Denizens of the Shadowfell:Thise are guard's of cults.
Cults:Trying to sumon Elementals
Elementals:Protecting their cultis horde's from ruthless slaugher.

[Mercenary Pen]

I would think it would be something like next:
Denizens of the Shadowfell:Thise are guard's of cults.
Cults:Trying to sumon Elementals
Elementals:Protecting their cultis horde's from ruthless slaugher.

Please, re-read the instructions for this vote- because what you've done does not fit them.

[Emperor Demonking]

Freeing the Dark God of evil.

[Mercenary Pen]

Interesting (perhaps the chained god should make an appearance here)- but there's still room for ideas.

[Pronounceable]

World peace and happiness?

No, scratch that. Hunt down some specific critter in hiding.

[UnChosenOne]

Well then. How it would be mindless slaughter for favor of dark god's?

[Mercenary Pen]

Much better, thank you.

Also, thank you for your second attempt cnsvnc- the first idea probably shouldn't have survived to the final post though.

[Mercenary Pen]

News Just In:

I'm extending the motivation suggestions until the end of tomorrow- just to make certain I've got as many options as possible to work with... I'm also going to allow everyone a second suggestion at this stage.

[Vadin]

Mindless Slaughter for Dark Gods
and Awake a Terrible Beast to Destroy Some Town

[Pronounceable]

Domination over the dungeon.


Also, thank you for your second attempt cnsvnc- the first idea probably shouldn't have survived to the final post though.

Final post?

[KKL]

My idea?

Stark boredom.

[Mercenary Pen]

Domination over the dungeon.



Final post?

What I meant was, maybe you should have edited the first idea out before posting...

[Shadow_Elf]

To Create a Bastion of Power from which to combat the Pirate Ninja Cyborg Armies of Lord [Insert Name Here]?

I hope this one gets voted for, cause then you'd also have to make some Pirate Ninja Cyborgs to act as allied units.

[Mercenary Pen]

I'd have to tweak that suggestion ever so slightly if I used it shadow... I couldn't possibly steal from you the ability to run 'Vote up a Pirate Ninja Cyborg 4e':smallwink:

[Shadow_Elf]

I'd have to tweak that suggestion ever so slightly if I used it shadow... I couldn't possibly steal from you the ability to run 'Vote up a Pirate Ninja Cyborg 4e':smallwink:

As you wish...

Although, I think that "Vote up a Pirate Ninja Cyborg 4e" would have very limited... err... voting potential...

[Szilard]

2nd suggestion:
Use dungeon as hunting grounds for... hunting.

[Flabbicus]

Use the Macguffin to control the Elementals/Denizens of the Shadowfell
Establish a foothold in the Underdark/Feywild

Should I change these since I used slashes? Either or would really work in this case.

[Mercenary Pen]

Use the Macguffin to control the Elementals/Denizens of the Shadowfell
Establish a foothold in the Underdark/Feywild

Should I change these since I used slashes? Either or would really work in this case.

Slashes should be okay, however I did request that no suggestion be tied to any specific hostile faction.

[Mercenary Pen]

Use the Macguffin to control the Elementals/Denizens of the Shadowfell
Establish a foothold in the Underdark/Feywild

Should I change these since I used slashes? Either or would really work in this case.

Slashes should be okay... I assume you're using them to get around the 'don't tie the suggestion to a specific faction rule... so I'll read the first one as:

Use the Macguffin to control other monsters

[Emperor Demonking]

To conquer the nine hells.

[Mercenary Pen]

Possible but- with a general lack of demons in the finished product- slightly less likely...

[Shadow_Elf]

Hey, Demons are Elementals! And they could be using their Cultists to summon Undeads, to use as fodder for their invasion of the Hells!

[Mercenary Pen]

Yes, by origin Demons are elemental (I forget that sometimes), however, by organisation I don't tend to group them in as generic elementals (hence there were separate options for demons and elementals in the vote for hostile factions)

[Mercenary Pen]

At this point, I'm going to declare the voting closed, and start work on the actual dungeon... Because I fancy having some dots still to join up, rather than being told that the picture of a goose is in fact a Balor.

Dungeon will be available as soon as I can get it done.

[Mercenary Pen]

Now that the voting is concluded, feel free to speculate as to exactly what the dungeon will turn out like...

I want to get things started by dropping a couple of spoilers into the thread:

The Dungeon's Name: The crystal catacombs.

The Deity worshipped by the cult: Torog 'the king who crawls', patron deity of the underdark, jailors and torturers.

[Mercenary Pen]

UPDATE: I'm working on one of the approaches to the dungeon, and I'm looking for ideas for a skill challenge involving a Faerie Dragon...

This is what I have so far:

This encounter should take the form of a skill challenge, and should ideally seem as dangerous to the PCs as being set upon by the kobolds.

Potential problem: Language Barrier
The Faerie Dragon is capable of speaking Elven or Draconic, but if your PC's do not know either of those languages, she may employ a Kobold to translate into Common (or potentially Deep Speech if required)

Motivation:
The Faerie Dragon Kulestrivantos has been beginning her slow, painstaking rise to supremacy, and wishes to know in what way she can turn these PC's to her advantage. This might be by turning them into readily disposable shock troops (rather like the local Kobolds), by shaking them down for money to add to her hoard, or by using them as a means of achieving other goals, requiring greater mental agility, such as defeating or annoying local rivals. The outcome of this skill challenge (if you choose to run it) should do something to dictate the next few encounters.

Any ideas you guys have would be greatly appreciated.