Vacancy

[Kane0]

Hey all.

So I have an idea for a one-shot, spawned from the Wierd and Bad plot hook threads.

Basically the party stumbles across the entrance to a stock standard dungeon, except that out the front there is a big sign that says 'Vacancy, apply within'. The dungeon has been cleared of the vast majority of its monsters, its traps dismantled and its loot looted. It's an almost empty structure apart from some raw materials lying around. The party can set up shop as they please.

So, my question is: Assuming If you were in this party and you don't just keep walking, what would you do?

Note: There would probably be other dungeon-owners in the area, and your new neighbors may or may not like your new setup. Other adventurers may cause a hassle too.

[erikun]

Become obsessively paranoid of a trap, and/or obsessively check for hidden treasure that whoever was last there likely passed up.

But most likely, figure that it's either a trap, a dungeon-spanning mimic, or something that will shift to another plane while I'm in it. Seriously, why else would it be completely empty (not even some giant spiders or anything) and with a sign in front of it?

[Kane0]

Oh there could possibly be some vagrants or whatnot, depending on what I roll and the party's level.

[Komodo]

Actually, this idea has some potential. Think of it: the reverse dungeon crawl. The party could decide to set up shop somewhere in the back of the dungeon, store their loot there, liven up the place to make it more homely, kill whatever wandering creature would also like to move in, possibly even start up their own menagerie of loyal beasties to wander about the place. Then, other adventurers (wandering monsters, bandits, greedy real estate agents, competing dungeon owners) could come in to try and wreck/steal the PC's stuff. The PCs would have to set up traps/sic the monsters on em/fight them off directly to protect their new home.

I actually really like this idea. There's only two problems I could see with it of the top of my head. The first would be that once the PCs set up shop, the game's pretty much stuck there. The PC's would be reluctant to leave, out of fear for their stuff, and once they've mapped the dungeon out, that'll be basically it in the way of exploration. To solve his, I might recommend making he dungeon mutable. An earhquake could fill in a few rooms and open up a new hall or two, or a race of burrowing monsters could bypass half their traps. Also, if they're given some incentive to leave every once in a while (off the top of my head: need to wash in a distant magic pool to keep evil spirits away), then they'd have incentive to prepare better protections for their dungeon. Coming home just in time to flank robbers busy with their traps/mercenaries would feel good.

The other problem is that you couldn't rely on this happening spontaneously. You'd have to tell the players what sort of game this would be beforehand. Other than that, though, I feel like I'd totally play this game.

[Kane0]

Thanks, that's pretty much what I had in mind. I just wanted to make sure that the players would see what I would if i weren't DMing this one.

greedy real estate agents

That made my day.

[Another_Poet]

Agree with Komodo (who has an awesome name, by the way). This sounds like a great game idea and one I'd be happy to play in IRL.

[The Oni]

What I could see is the dungeon functioning as a sort of mini-game, like the old D&D scenarios where you played monsters vs. adventurers. Got too much loot to store? Don't want it to be taxed? Stuff it in the dungeon, then place your favorite cohorts and trained beasties to guard it. While the adventurers are off adventuring, every so often you get a minigame where you play as your cohort or monster and try to take out the intruder. If you win, you get MORE stuff for the hoard. If you lose, enemies take some stuff, BUT you're never at risk of actually being killed - so the DM can make the challenges as challenging as he wants.

[Jaycemonde]

I've been on a Payday binge all month, so seeing this really made my day. It'd be cool to set up what was essentially the players' safe house, especially if the dungeon weren't too big, could easily be disguised/hidden from casual observation and the players were more on the lawless/greedy side. If it's in crappy condition, they could use some of their stored loot to fix it up or expand on the available space. Maybe they could hire an artisan to build a quality vault in.

[JeenLeen]

What I could see is the dungeon functioning as a sort of mini-game, like the old D&D scenarios where you played monsters vs. adventurers. Got too much loot to store? Don't want it to be taxed? Stuff it in the dungeon, then place your favorite cohorts and trained beasties to guard it. While the adventurers are off adventuring, every so often you get a minigame where you play as your cohort or monster and try to take out the intruder. If you win, you get MORE stuff for the hoard. If you lose, enemies take some stuff, BUT you're never at risk of actually being killed - so the DM can make the challenges as challenging as he wants.

On this idea, something like the defend-the-fort mini-game in Final Fantasy 7 comes to mind. I think a full-scale battle playing as the minions would be too much dice-rolling to be fun, but if you made it into a sort of tactical wargame with rather simple rules... or maybe simple rules except for a few powerful minions (cohorts, or a dragon they recruit, or some such)... that's more managable.

I can't remember the name of that fort, but it's the one where there's a mako reactor being used as a pheniox's nest.

[SethoMarkus]

What I could see is the dungeon functioning as a sort of mini-game, like the old D&D scenarios where you played monsters vs. adventurers. Got too much loot to store? Don't want it to be taxed? Stuff it in the dungeon, then place your favorite cohorts and trained beasties to guard it. While the adventurers are off adventuring, every so often you get a minigame where you play as your cohort or monster and try to take out the intruder. If you win, you get MORE stuff for the hoard. If you lose, enemies take some stuff, BUT you're never at risk of actually being killed - so the DM can make the challenges as challenging as he wants.

On this idea, something like the defend-the-fort mini-game in Final Fantasy 7 comes to mind. I think a full-scale battle playing as the minions would be too much dice-rolling to be fun, but if you made it into a sort of tactical wargame with rather simple rules... or maybe simple rules except for a few powerful minions (cohorts, or a dragon they recruit, or some such)... that's more managable.

I can't remember the name of that fort, but it's the one where there's a mako reactor being used as a pheniox's nest.

I second these ideas. I would love to play in a campaign like this. The player's main characters would be off doing standard adventurer stuff, but they would have alternate Cohort level characters back in the dungeon protecting their loot. It would sort of be a combination Fort Condor (the FFVII minigame mentioned) and Dwarf Fortress. The cohorts would need to keep the traps working properly, have some method of producing food and clean water, cleaning up the bodies/waste of defeated intruders, etc. As a fun twist, maybe have the cohorts defending the PC's treasure rebel if they are treated poorly or gain too many magic items. Have the PCs break into their own dungeon!

[Gavran]

I absolutely adore DF, but once you saying DF is a minigame, you aren't actually spending any time playing the "big"game anymore. :P

[Amaril]

One game this kinda makes me think of a bit is The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot, a recent Diablo-style dungeon crawler in which each player spends half their time raiding the heavily defended castles of neighboring players for money and gear, and the other half building up the monster and trap defenses in their own castle to keep greedy neighbors from doing the same to them. Also, it has the best title of any computer game ever made ever.

[JeenLeen]

Another idea that occurred to me -- although here this becomes less and less of a mini-game -- could be convincing trusted NPCs to join your band and move to the dungeon, and there they can provide certain benefits (like recruit a rogue to help make traps, or a smith/mage to craft your own magical gear.)

The idea comes from the Suikoden game series. In a similar vein, the more folk you have, the better your dungeon could naturally get as the occupants fix it up on their own.


From some of the above posts, the idea of a 'Robin Hood' type adventure, where you play bandits or rebels who largely target an evil force comes to mind.
Maybe that could be a good plot to make the dungeon-base more central to the story? The OP's idea wasn't so much a mini-game as a large part of the campaign, from what I can tell.

[The Oni]

Also for the purposes of this exercise there is no such thing as a Bag of Holding. Bags of Holding would seriously screw up your plans here.

[Slipperychicken]

I'd ask how much the rent is.

[smuchmuch]

I'm not sure how long the game would last but it does sound like a somehat original idea

Then, other adventurers (wandering monsters, bandits, greedy real estate agents, competing dungeon owners) could come in to try and wreck/steal the PC's stuff. The PCs would have to set up traps/sic the monsters on em/fight them off directly to protect their new home.

Congratulation on shifting the usual pradigm for adventurer from 'murderous hobos' to 'murderous home owners'

[Havokca]

As a hook, you could always introduce them to a "friendly" wizard with his own tower nearby. Coordinate some favours running back and forth for a bit (which may or may not include cleaning out the dungeon to begin with -- the monsters/brigands that keep moving in keep interrupting something important of his).

He can then state something to the effect of him needing to go away for awhile (planes hopping, or the like) and that he'd like it if the PCs could set up shop there, so that he doesn't have to continually clear it out. He could even offer to use a custom spell of his that acts essentially as a cloister, but allows the PCs to bypass it (and himself, but shhh)… (and possibly a ward or two to let the PCs know when certain conditions are met, ie. a door being opened)

Whether or not he double-crosses them later, is an exercise left to the plot.

But then they've got a reason to inhabit it, *and* they've got a safe haven for the treasure that they accumulate?

[TeddyKazooie]

I really like this idea and it reminds me of some 'mini-games' I've always wanted to do in games, but never managed to get them implemented. It seems hard for me to juggle the primary plot and a side-activity without making the side-activity a greater influence than the plot.

Personal examples are the use of a trading caravan using the Pathfinder rules or homebrew rules. The PCs adventure hooks are given as job offers and they do a lot of traveling, improve their caravan, buy warehouses, etc. It was tough getting the group to work together, though. Everyone's interests pull them in different directions with job offers and side missions.

Another was the PCs running a guild. Hiring other adventurers to work for them and sending them on side missions or extra missions to bring in gold and improve the guild.

Ideas a lot of folks have probably had and had better success than myself xD

Anyway, I'm curious about how exactly one would map out the vacant dungeon in a forum based game. I use maptools primarily and it doesn't lend well (with my skill level) to making large maps. Would there be a good program to use for creating more in-depth maps on a larger scale? Aside from me screwing around in Paint.