MegaDungeons

[bluegargantua]

Hey,

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

Comments

[foxtown.livejournal.com]

Neato Bandito!

Definately sounds fun.

[insegnante.livejournal.com]

Did you suddenly have a LOT of time on your hands? ;-)

DM Burnout? No!

[lovelips.livejournal.com]

Tom,

There doesn't NEED to be DM burnout. You simply need a group of GMs. There's a small but non-zero chance that any GM's group will find the Amulet in any given week; other than that you roll on a d12-d8-d6 table which level and sector you jump into.

d12 governs which level;
d8 governs which 1/8 of the map;
d6 governs which corridor or room.

Alternately, you as master GM decide where the Amulet is, and then randomly roll the six or eight territories that the transportation doohickeys reach in successive weeks, and then assign the doohickeys and their coordinates to successive GMs. They develop the problems in that set of corridors, relaying information about their factions' activities back to you.

Easy. :-)

Re: DM Burnout? No!

[anselm23.livejournal.com]

Uh... that last one was me. lovelips and I have been using the same computer lots these days.

Have a great day.

Re: DM Burnout? No!

[bluegargantua]

I wasn't planning on randomizing the start. 1st level, you start at the same opening and have to walk down. Your group earns a beacon, you drop it and you can go their in lieu of your standard start area.

The Amulet pretty much has to be at the bottom because that's the way these things work. Also, it allows for co-ordination at the end.

Also? 'zat really you lovelips? Didn't know this was your bag.

later
Tom

[drwex]

I tried something similar, once. The problem i ran into was keeping track of all the moving pieces. Unless you come up with a way to make most of the dungeon static then it gets stunningly hard to figure out where all the bits should be at any given moment. And why don't the lower denizens go up and kick the asses of these invaders, once they figure out the same folk are coming and going?

[twwombat.livejournal.com]

Easy: get people to play the dungeon-based monster faction leaders. If they want to turn the chess-like game of resource management into "let's nail the next group of PCs that tries these stairs", then at least some of the design and bookkeeping duties are offloaded to other Players/Assistant GMs.

That was kind of the idea with my Gamut O' Games, but that really did burn me out. I had about 40 players cast in roles throughout my multiverse: PCs, major NPCs, and even the gods. All had plots to work on, and there was always the chance of people crossing paths whenever odd things started happening.

Schweet.

[bluegargantua]

It's a dungeon. There's no rhyme or reason to the "ecology". Stuff just is. I figure if you only partially clear an area, they get some reinforcements. If you totally clear an area, the random monster table gets an entry or two for the group you just defeated. Once all areas are clear and enough patrolling is done, a level is completely cleared out.

later
Tom

[mikecap.livejournal.com]

It's like playing Diablo, except you can go anywhere in the game!

[mrf-arch.livejournal.com]

My god, you've created MMOnethack!