Quote Originally Posted by Yora View Post
The first thing to establish is what is the focus of the campaign. Not everything in the campaign needs to be about that focus, but it all needs to be in support of the focus.

A megadungeon campaign still can has a town. In fact it should have one. But the things that players are doing in the town should have a meaningful impact on what they will be doing later in the megadungeon, All content should in some way bring the players closer to their goal. Be it gaining useful knowiledge or preparing for upcoming challenges. However, becoming stronger so that they can fight the monsters ahead is not making progress. That's just plain filler. If the players are in a position where their characters are not powerful enough to progress further, then it's the monsters that need to be made weaker. Not the characters who have to go doing busywork to get stronger.
Progress has to be narrative progress, not mechanical one.
I think getting stronger doesn't have to be busywork, if there's a narrative meaning to it. Yes, if it's just 'grind out some XP until you can roflstomp the encounter' that's no good. But if there are specific in-character ways that certain avenues of power can be made available, those are then steps in a larger plan that the players can design and attempt to execute. Though, that's perhaps something that works best when that's the only way advancement happens - otherwise the passive slow advancement might be taken to be what the GM is asking for.