MegaDungeons
Jul. 16th, 2008 01:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaHey,
So thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bryant I've been thinking about MegaDungeons. You know. Dungeons that are huge pretty much for the purpose of being huge. The massive "Ruins of the Undermountain" maps and Castle Greyhawk and stuff.
And now I've got an idea.
So Orcus (cause hey, he's a great finishing Big Bad) steals the Amulet of Yendor and tosses it at the bottom of a massive dungeon in another dimension. Since the Amulet not only makes you Ruler of Yendor, gives you hoopy magic powers, and totally gets you laid, but also keeps demons and other critters out of your world, getting it back is a pretty high priority. Major governing bodies and not a few private individuals go to work on the problem and eventually they come up with these smaller magical amulets that allow someone to pass into the Dungeon Realm for a random period of time. The amulet coats you in an etherial aura that allows you to exist and interact in the Dungeon Realm, but eventually the aura breaks down and you're ejected back into the Yendor reality. Most people come back within a day, a couple don't come back for a week, but that seems to be the extent of it. The aura's decay seems to be influenced by conditions at the moment of transition so groups of people who jump all at once come back at the same time. The call goes out far and wide for brave and daring teams of adventurers who are willing to make the dangerous journey into the Dungeon Realm.
That's the fluff. The deal is that I build a huge, huge, HUGE megadungeon. Then I run on multiple nights with different groups of people. Each group is a separate adventuring party. They kick off their amulets and go exploring. As soon as the night's session is over, the amulets go off and they return to Yendor where they have to wait until the next session. In the middle of a fight? Tough (or maybe yay). Sit in a locked room for days and days and days. Whatever. When the real-world game session is over, everyone zaps out.
So now you're not just competing against the monsters and the dungeon, you've got other parties to worry about as well. You might not see them directly, but if they get to the dwarven throne room first, you won't get any loot. Worse, if other parties can negotiate with factions in the dungeon, you might find yourself facing a rather formidable set of opponents. Of course, parties can cooperate as well, trading magic items, spells, maps and information. Some parties might choose to run deeper into the dungeon, do a quick scout and come back to sell the info.
Every so often, parties would get access to a magical token they could leave behind in the dungeon to serve as a "spawn point" (so they don't have to tromp down 16 levels and can just start. Of course, those tokens have a small, but non-zero chance of being moved or disturbed.
There'd be massive GM burnout, but it seems like a fun idea in theory.
later
Tom
So thanks to
bryant I've been thinking about MegaDungeons. You know. Dungeons that are huge pretty much for the purpose of being huge. The massive "Ruins of the Undermountain" maps and Castle Greyhawk and stuff.And now I've got an idea.
So Orcus (cause hey, he's a great finishing Big Bad) steals the Amulet of Yendor and tosses it at the bottom of a massive dungeon in another dimension. Since the Amulet not only makes you Ruler of Yendor, gives you hoopy magic powers, and totally gets you laid, but also keeps demons and other critters out of your world, getting it back is a pretty high priority. Major governing bodies and not a few private individuals go to work on the problem and eventually they come up with these smaller magical amulets that allow someone to pass into the Dungeon Realm for a random period of time. The amulet coats you in an etherial aura that allows you to exist and interact in the Dungeon Realm, but eventually the aura breaks down and you're ejected back into the Yendor reality. Most people come back within a day, a couple don't come back for a week, but that seems to be the extent of it. The aura's decay seems to be influenced by conditions at the moment of transition so groups of people who jump all at once come back at the same time. The call goes out far and wide for brave and daring teams of adventurers who are willing to make the dangerous journey into the Dungeon Realm.
That's the fluff. The deal is that I build a huge, huge, HUGE megadungeon. Then I run on multiple nights with different groups of people. Each group is a separate adventuring party. They kick off their amulets and go exploring. As soon as the night's session is over, the amulets go off and they return to Yendor where they have to wait until the next session. In the middle of a fight? Tough (or maybe yay). Sit in a locked room for days and days and days. Whatever. When the real-world game session is over, everyone zaps out.
So now you're not just competing against the monsters and the dungeon, you've got other parties to worry about as well. You might not see them directly, but if they get to the dwarven throne room first, you won't get any loot. Worse, if other parties can negotiate with factions in the dungeon, you might find yourself facing a rather formidable set of opponents. Of course, parties can cooperate as well, trading magic items, spells, maps and information. Some parties might choose to run deeper into the dungeon, do a quick scout and come back to sell the info.
Every so often, parties would get access to a magical token they could leave behind in the dungeon to serve as a "spawn point" (so they don't have to tromp down 16 levels and can just start. Of course, those tokens have a small, but non-zero chance of being moved or disturbed.
There'd be massive GM burnout, but it seems like a fun idea in theory.
later
Tom
