tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post3918682756859695371..comments2024-03-29T07:44:02.365-04:00Comments on Dreams in the Lich House: You Will Never Finish That DungeonJohnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031181424520125213noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-56056380015269014112014-02-18T18:58:26.325-05:002014-02-18T18:58:26.325-05:00Dungeons are dynamic environments. Each level of ...Dungeons are dynamic environments. Each level of a campaign dungeon need not be too large, but they should be deep, and each time a level is cleared out, new critters will take advantage of the open real estate. Planned encounters need not be elaborate. A few random rolls on the appropriate table, a few notes is all that's needed. You can let your imagination feed off the vide you get from the table to flesh out the details for the encounters your players actually er, encounter. No need whatsoever for overly detailed notes.DHBoggshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02170439175265397893noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-85667738558423239242014-02-16T10:56:45.454-05:002014-02-16T10:56:45.454-05:00I design my dungeon in a similar fashion to design...I design my dungeon in a similar fashion to designing a "surface" campaign...I make a general map of what is in each area of the dungeon level (using a grid designed in Publisher). Then, as I do my detailed maps (as needed or as I have time), I drop them (in jpeg form) into the grid. Because we are playing online, I just upload the jpegs to Roll20. I find if I create too much detail at once, I exhaust my small reserve of creativity.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-46598812251372032352014-02-11T11:56:17.670-05:002014-02-11T11:56:17.670-05:00I think the old AD&D 2E boxed set Dragon Mount...I think the old AD&D 2E boxed set Dragon Mountain would qualify for discussion here. That set had extra maps that weren't even keyed for some of the areas, and the authors encouraged the DM to add, rearrange, and generally cause havoc. Their advice even included changing passages, that the mountain itself might change in layout in the inhabited areas by the next time it was explored. My players actually went off on a tangent some of the unmapped kobold warrens, and I had to do everything on the fly, which I love to do anyhow. But that's just one example of what TSR was doing with the megadungeon in that era. They're meant to be open-ended. And, since the DM controls what the players experience for the most part, there's nothing that says you can't take your 10,000 Spiders and dump it right on their fat heads whenever you want. I like to have a few pre-designed but unplaced encounters that I can drop in when it's appropriate in just that way. Things lagging along, players growing restless from slogging through yet another rats' nest with 2000 cp? Drop the spiders on them in one of the next rooms. Problem solved.HitAdjacentAllyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08632582325567098655noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-77363443036968033782014-02-11T07:53:08.935-05:002014-02-11T07:53:08.935-05:00Pat's approach is also where I would try to go...Pat's approach is also where I would try to go with a solution if I was running such a vast dungeon. Since the individual areas are less relevant in the aggregate, the game needs to shift from "did the players find the special room", to "are the players making interesting choices about where to go?" How do I maximize the player-driven nature of that type of game? Embrace the strengths of the sandbox. The trade off is that some work will go unused - let's hope you didn't invest too much time; you're hoping to gain a unique table top experience by presenting such an extensive locale and giving the players extreme liberty.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18031181424520125213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-31009920916797166972014-02-11T00:17:44.443-05:002014-02-11T00:17:44.443-05:00I think that when you publish a megadungeon, you a...I think that when you publish a megadungeon, you are really doing it as a creative process and a work for others. like to think that sometime, someone will use my megadungeon. Some adventurer out there will get to that out-of-the-way room of Castle Triskelion. I think that this is certainly true of the Castle of the Mad Archmage.<br /><br />http://castletriskelion.blogspot.com/Darnizhaanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15005189125696185700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-17585924900102581122014-02-10T23:28:42.328-05:002014-02-10T23:28:42.328-05:00The irony about Alex M from Autarch creating a Ty...The irony about Alex M from Autarch creating a Type 2 setting is that ACKS itself recommends using a fungible design in making the campaign setting. Specifically, that you create lairs and only place them on the map as players encounter them.Rod Thompsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12824146866756155345noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-48077593440209554092014-02-10T22:45:18.171-05:002014-02-10T22:45:18.171-05:00I enjoy the creation. I love it when the players ...I enjoy the creation. I love it when the players find my 10k Spider Room, but I'm a tinker by nature. If they don't find it maybe I'll reuse it someday. Maybe I'll quantum ogre it. But they probably stumbled into my 20k Firefly Room and that's fun too.<br /><br />The thing I worry about with a megadungeon isn't individual parts, it's the thought of players never reaching the bottom. Whatever is down there. Any party can explore the upper reaches of a megadungeon, but I want to see a party reach the bottom. <br /><br />It's a related concern, but I think different in some key ways. It's tied to wanting to see a party stick with a game long enough to reach that level of development. And it digs into my imagination of wanting to see what it is that the dwarfs woke up when they dug too deeply and too greedily. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-75776432112432179152014-02-10T22:42:29.691-05:002014-02-10T22:42:29.691-05:00A lot of food for thought. One idea that occurs to...A lot of food for thought. One idea that occurs to me as I read this is that a megadungeon may be well (better?) suited for a GM who has multiple gaming groups and is going to run lots of different groups of players through the same place. So even if group A in the online game misses the "My Precious Snowflake Encounter," there is every possibility that group B in the weekly FLGS game may still run across it. Or group C, playing a year later may find it. <br /><br />That said, I've shied away from the megadungeon for the reasons you mentioned, and I tend to gravitate toward creating dungeons that can be completely cleared out in a session or two.Chris C.https://www.blogger.com/profile/08655640273250716377noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-39812218760789530632014-02-10T22:11:10.926-05:002014-02-10T22:11:10.926-05:00I've got tons of encounters the players have n...I've got tons of encounters the players have never touched. They got semi-completionist on the first level of ASE, and then gave up on that because they weren't getting enough gold. For the next couple of levels, it's been more directed at accomplishing in-game goals - get some rumored bit of loot, slaughter some faction of humanoids, etc.Pathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11381628150285913370noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-1730339582891747172014-02-10T20:31:26.556-05:002014-02-10T20:31:26.556-05:00_Do you write interesting, detailed encounters and..._Do you write interesting, detailed encounters and place them in a design so large that there is only a slim chance the party will actually meet your Precious Encounter™? What are you, some kind of masochist?_<br /><br />Well, they're a GM, masochist is somewhat implied. :PAllandaroshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01046079318999891967noreply@blogger.com